EUROPEAN COMMISSION ACTED IN COLLUSION WITH MICROSOFT, SAYS HIGH-PROFILE AUSTRIAN MEP DR. MARIA BERGER
"The Commission might end up paying dearly for its rash collusion with Microsoft" -- "Commission president apparently loves to play high-stakes poker with the EP" -- "Bill Gates is at the moment making himself ever more enemies in the EP"
"The Commission might end up paying dearly for its rash collusion with Microsoft" -- "Commission president apparently loves to play high-stakes poker with the EP" -- "Bill Gates is at the moment making himself ever more enemies in the EP"
Brussels (03 March 2005). A high-profile MEP has said that the European Commission acted in collusion with Microsoft when earlier this week it declined the European Parliament's request for a restart of the legislative process concerning the software patent directive. Dr. Maria Berger, the leader of the Austrian social democratic delegation in the EP and the coordinator of the second-largest parliamentary group (PSE) in the Legal Affairs Committee, said in a press release that "the Commission might end up paying dearly for its rash collusion with Microsoft". In her opinion, the Commission adopted the position of Microsoft founder Bill Gates on the subject "without further thought". Gates had visited the Commission and the EP in February.
Dr. Berger describes the letter of the president of the Commission (José Manuel Barroso) to the president of the EP (Josep Borrell), in which a restart of the process is declined, as "yet another provocation of the parliament". She concludes that Barroso "apparently loves to play high-stakes poker with the EP", and recalls that he already suffered his first defeat with that approach last year when he had to withdraw his list of proposed commissioners because the EP would otherwise have withheld its approval. The way she sees the present situation, Barroso may now face another defeat. Dr. Berger concludes saying that Bill Gates, who recently traveled Europe to pressure politicians toward a directive to his liking, "is at the moment making himself ever more enemies in the EP".
The original German-language press release of Dr. Maria Berger MEP is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.spe.at/berger/3/a.html#pm19 NoSoftwarePatents.com's campaign manager Florian Mueller had previously expressed his concern that the EU's Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy "may be more interested in what is good for Microsoft than for Europe as a whole". His worries stem from the fact that Microsoft is Ireland's largest tax-payer since the company supplies the entire EU out of its facility in Dublin where it has a "tax haven". Mueller explained that "with its tax-haven program for the European subsidiary of U.S. corporations, once-poor Ireland has within less than two decades become Europe's wealthiest country by various statistics."
Recently, NoSoftwarePatents.com publicized a detailed text that explains the economic dependence of Ireland upon Microsoft and similar U.S. corporations:
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=397 Microsoft's push for EU software patents drew major attention last month after a leading Danish financial newspaper quoted Microsoft Denmark's chief lobbyist who said that Bill Gates had threatened the Danish government with killing 800 jobs unless the EU were to legalize software patents. The Danish social democrats responded with a press release that "blackmail shall not dictate Danish policy". Microsoft subsequently denied that Gates made the respective statement but did admit that intellectual property rights and their connection with the location of jobs were discussed in the respective meeting.
Background Information, and Call to "Reprimand" Barroso
The leaders of the EP's parliamentary groups had unanimously approved the request of the EP's Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) for a fresh start on the controversial subject. A week later, on 24 February, the plenary of the EP reinforced this by unanimously "inviting" the Commission to review its proposal for a software patent directive although there was no more formal requirement for the plenary to vote on this subject. On 28 February, the Commission rejected that request without stating any particular reason. At least in recent history, no such restart request had been declined.
Fritz Amann, chairman of an Austrian business organization and leader of a right-wing Austrian government party in a regional parliament, now called on Austrian minister of economics Hubert Gorbach (from the same party) "to make the Council pull the emergency brake and reprimand Barroso".
The EU Council will meet in its Competitiveness Council configuration this coming Monday (7 March). National parliaments in such countries as Denmark and the Netherlands make a last-minute effort to oblige their governments to demand in the EU Council that the Council's previously agreed-upon (but not yet formalized) position be renegotiated. After the Commission's unusual move, "anything can happen in the Council" according to political sources.
For further information concerning this announcement or the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, please contact:
Florian Mueller
Campaign Manager, NoSoftwarePatents.com
telephone +49 (8151) 651850
