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FFII: The patent directive and the European constitutionFFII: The patent directive and the European constitutionPosted Mar 9, 2005 16:29 UTC (Wed) by dash2 (guest, #11869)In reply to: FFII: The patent directive and the European constitution by ecureuil Parent article: FFII: The patent directive and the European constitution
The reason the FFII's letter plays into the hands of those crazy anti-European populists, is that the actual situation, and the actions of the European Council, play into the hands of those crazy anti-European populists. The populists claim that the EU is fundamentally undemocratic, and the Council has given them a powerful piece of supporting evidence.
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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 EuropeanParliament 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.
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