The EU ‘Competitiveness’ Council held in Brussels on Thursday 22 May, gave EU Member States the opportunity to express their views on whether or not to resume work on the regulation on Standards Essential Patents (SEPs).
Germany had put this point on the agenda of the Industry and Home Affairs Ministers in order to get a clearer idea of their intentions. Ahead of the meeting, Germany had submitted a note explaining why it wished to resume the work (see EUROPE 13643/11).
At the time of the debate, ten countries had come out in support of this position, either by co-signing the German note or by speaking out clearly in favour of it. In their view, the functioning of SEPs suffers from a lack of transparency and unreasonable grant conditions.
They also reject the European Commission’s argument - which proposed withdrawing the text - that negotiations in the EU Council had stalled. “The discussions had not really got off the ground, so it is premature to conclude that they had failed”, explained the Hungarian representative during the debate.
In the opposing camp, seven countries defended the withdrawal of the regulation: Finland, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Croatia and Greece. In their view, the proposal only added complicated procedures and was not consistent with the objectives of simplification.
The EU Council must now agree on a position to be communicated to the Commission so that it can decide whether or not to withdraw the text.
To see the German note supported by nine countries: https://aeur.eu/f/gw6 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)