Brussels, 23/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - French Socialist MEP Gilles Savary is delighted with Poland's request for the Council not to strike political agreement on the 'highly controversial' draft directive on patenting software inventions (see Europe of 22 December, p.7), hence joining forces with people in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, and at the European Parliament, want to ensure freedom of software, he said, noting that Poland had averted a show of strength from the Council. He noted in a press release that the Polish no strengthened the hand of people wanting a balanced solution that protects European industry but unambiguously rules out the patenting of software and stops the European Patent Office's practice of issuing patents for software. Gilles Savary also slams the attitude of the French government, which he describes as schizophrenic since it defends the exceptional nature of culture and shareware in Paris, but accepts turning knowledge into a commodity in Brussels.
Marc MacGann, Director General of the European Information and Communication Technologies Association (EICTA), expressed deep disappointment at the postponing of the vote, describing it as shedding doubt on the EU's collective commitment to the Lisbon Agenda. He said the draft directive had been unveiled by the Commission thirty months ago, wanting to know how long governments needed to establish a stable and harmonised legal environment to support innovation in the European Union.