Brussels, 01/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament (EP) has decided to postpone its vote on the patents package until a later date because of the deadlock among three member states - France, Germany and the United Kingdom - over which city should host the patent court's central division. No resolution was found at the informal European Summit on 30 January. The Council undertook only to reach agreement by June of this year. The EP had planned to approve the patents package in plenary session this week in Brussels. However, the hold-up among the member states has prevented this. The EP will now have to wait for the Council (with the exceptions of Spain and Italy which are not taking part in the enhanced cooperation) reach agreement before voting, an EP source has said. The Parliament intends to point out to the Council that this matter, which seeks to boost the competitiveness, in particular, of European small businesses, is an issue of the greatest urgency. On 31 January, the leader of the ALDE Group, Guy Verhofstadt, expressed his annoyance at the dispute over where the court is to be based and suggested Brussels temporarily host the patents court. (SP/transl.rt)