FFII: The patent directive and the European constitution [LWN.net]

FFII: The patent directive and the European constitution

Posted Mar 9, 2005 15:32 UTC (Wed) by ecureuil (subscriber, #3507)
In reply to: FFII: The patent directive and the European constitution by NRArnot
Parent article: FFII: The patent directive and the European constitution

I think it is the wrong attitude. Voting 'No' to the European
Constitution will not open a new negociation for 'more' democracy in the
European Constitution but lead to a bastard statu quo where we will keep
the current mixture of treaties. Who will gain power : bureaucratic
institutions like the European Patent Agency who will keep their
autonomy.

The open letter of the FFII is very bad and contra-productive. Shouting
wolf and calling European institutions a farce just reinforce the
populist anti-European movement. People then vote for populist parties
and we have useless anti-European deputies in European Parliament. The
vote of the Council is a step back for FLOSS but is in no way
anti-democratic. We are trying to play the rules of the complex European
decision process. Our opponents also play the rules. Rules are complex
not because we, European, love complexity but because it is a union of
countries with different political traditions so there must be a
double-tier level of federal democracy and consensus of national
governments.

The FFII should control better its communication and have a sober,
pragmatic and professional message. I would have hoped that somebody like
Jonas Maebe living in Ghent would have understood that this kind of
emotional outburst just bring more vote to the Vlaams Blok. I don't
remember that Vlaams Blok European Parliament Members being very
interested in helping the anti-patent movement.

Cheers,
Charles

(Log in to post comments)

FFII: The patent directive and the European constitution

Posted Mar 9, 2005 21:37 UTC (Wed) by kleptog (subscriber, #1183) [Link]

But that's a completely useless argument. The only effect voting no on the constitution is that we keep the rules we have now. It would be helpful to know if the rules in the constitution are better or worse.

If the constitution is voted down by any one country, the whole thing has to go for renegotiation. It'll be years before an alternative comes up. At the end there is no guarentee you're going to get anything better.

Actually, the constitution seems to me to be an optitimation and is not necessary for the EU to exist. If it doesn't succeed, I wonder if the option will ever come again.

FFII: The patent directive and the European constitution

Posted Mar 10, 2005 10:51 UTC (Thu) by ecureuil (subscriber, #3507) [Link]

The new Constitution is an evolution not a revolution. The European
Parliament is getting more power and especially the power to elect the
President of the Commission. But the European Union is not transforming
itself in a parliamentary regime. I doubt that a Parliamentary regime has
any chance to work when you see the differences of opinions between EMP
from different countries but in the same political group. Labour Arlene
McCarthy pushed a pro-computer-patent law and her main opponent is French
Socialist Michel Rocard. They are both member of the same political group
and normally should vote the same way.
If the new European Constitution is voted, the amount of power of the
European Parliament will be clearly related to the quality of its members
(id est the more Vlaams Blok members the less power to the Parliament)
and their capacity of creating stable, powerful, political groups. Since
the first vote by the Parliament, a new election occurrend. The second
reading of the patent law will be voted by a Parliament that look on the
paper more favorable for us especially because the right is now divided
with a new center right group. If we can push the Socialist group and the
Center Right group to vote against the renewed patent proposition and
that we get some support from the Extreme Left and Anti-Europeans, we
will win the vote. The weak links are, as usual, the Brits : Labour and
Lib Dem (I think) are pro-computer-patent. Changing the position of the
Lib Dem should be a priority goal.

For the time being Patent Law is in a grey zone. The European Patent
Office is not officially dependant of the European Commission.
Nevertheless the Commission has started this legislative process. The new
Constitution enshrines this new situation by adding Intellectual Property
to the category of co-decision topics : fields where a law must be
approved by the federal institutions (Commission + European Parliament)
and by the States through the Council.

I think that the current debate shows that patent law is a political
problem and not a pure technical matter that should be left to a
specialised autonomous authority. The new constitution clearly
acknowledges that fact. After that, Parliaments, Governments, Commissions
can pass bad laws, but they are still democratic laws.

FFII: The patent directive and the European constitution

Posted Mar 10, 2005 21:40 UTC (Thu) by jeroen (subscriber, #12372) [Link]

The only effect voting yes is accepting the current undemocratic rules. Do you know the difference in the codecision procedure between the constitution and the current treaties? It's almost nothing. Only a few small changes, but the basics is the same. The European Parliament still has a lot less power than either the council or the commission. This is unacceptable for me, that's why I vote NO.

By the way, if we accept this constitution, it will even be more years before we ever get a new one. And until that time, the EU stays undemocratic.