(original report on Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure website:  http://www.ffii.org/)


Report

* Cyprus submitted a written declaration at the start of the Council session
* Poland, Denmark, Portugal and others (not specified) asked for a B item (discussion point)
* The Luxembourg presidency claimed this was not possible due to procedural reasons, and that this would have undermined the whole process -> it would stay on the list of A-items
* Luxembourg then gave a long statement regarding how the EP still gets a chance in second reading, the importance of avoiding legal uncertainty etc.
* Denmark said it was disappointed about this, but accepted and submitted a written declaration
* Later on, the list of A items was accepted by the Council

Conclusion

* Luxembourg negated the Council's own Rules of Procedure, which state that a B-item (which is at the same time a request to remove an A item) can only be rejected by the a majority of the Council, and not just by the Presidency. (art 3.8)
* The objecting countries "forgot" to request removal of the A-item from the agenda. Rules 3.1 + 3.7 would have given any single country the right to have the A-item removed, because the Luxemburg presidency had failed to insert it more than 14 days earlier. It is difficult to believe that they were not aware of this possibility.
* This is a very sad day for democracy, and casts a very dark shadow over the European Constitution, which will give the Council even more power.

Audio stream from Council session (sent by on-site activists)

* Since the debate is over, the live stream links have been removed
* Audio recording:  http://mm.ffii.org/ConsAudio050307En

Comments

Jonas Maebe, FFII Board Member:

It is absolutely unfathomable what happened today. I cannot see how the promoters of the European Constitution can still support it with a straight face. This event shows that something is clearly rotten in the city of Brussels at the Council building. Why on Earth do we still have the rules that state that national parliaments should be taken into account by the Council?

Things would be much easier if we scrapped all those rules and simply wrote down "The Council presidency and Commission can do together whatever they like". There's no need for those pesky democratically elected parliamentarians to interfere with the smooth decision making process of the Council, since its only goal appears to be to please big business and to produce as many texts as the sausage machine can bear.

This is absolutely disgusting.


Hartmut Pilch (english version soon):

Die nächste Frage ist jetzt, wie der Rechtsausschuss des reagiert, der heute um 18.00 in Straßburg zu diesem Thema tagt.

Das EP muss nach EP-Regel 57 entscheiden, ob ein "Gemeinsamer Standpunkt" vorliegt. Angesichts des heutigen eigenmächtigen Verhaltens der Ratspräsidentschaft erscheint dies zweifelhaft. Ohne "Geimeinsamen Standpunkt" kann das EP auch nicht zu einer zweiten Lesung voranschreiten. Eventuell wird da der EuGH entscheiden müssen. Auch die düpierten Regierungen von Dänermark, Polen, Portugal etc haben Zugang zum EuGH. Für uns übrige Europäer bleiben vielleicht nur Mittel wie eine Bewegung gegen die EU, natürlich auch gegen die EU-Verfassung. Auch wenn die Ziele der EU begrüßenswert sind, muss das Ausmaß an Leid und Tyrannei, das wir um dieser Ziele willen in Kauf zu nehmen bereit sind, irgendwo seine Grenzen haben. Wenn wir die in diesem Fall nicht klar aufzeigen können, steht uns noch viel Ungemach ins Haus, nicht nur von Seiten des Patentwesens.


Extra information

* Council press briefing:  http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/misc/84021.pdf

Contact

Dieter Van Uytvanck: dietvu at ffii org tel. +32 (0)499 16 70 10

Jonas Maebe jmaebe at ffii org tel. +32 (0)485 36 96 45

Hartmut Pilch phm at ffii org tel. +49 (0) 89 18979927
About FFII --  http://www.ffii.org

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a non-profit association registered in several European countries, which is dedicated to the spread of data processing literacy. FFII supports the development of public information goods based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 500 members, 1,200 companies and 75,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.