Brussels, 07/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - Monday's Competitiveness Council finalised a common position on the draft directive for patenting computer-implemented inventions. The Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Hungary and Latvia gave their support in written declarations accompanying the common position. This decision brings to an end the Council's inability to translate its political agreement of May 2004 into a common position, given that the position held by some delegations (Germany, Netherlands, Poland) has since evolved. The Council adopted its common position (as “point A”, without discussion) by qualified majority with opposition from Spain and abstention from Austria, Italy and Belgium. It has been forwarded to the Parliament with a view to second reading. The EP requested and obtained in Strasbourg on Monday that the Commission should make a declaration on the subject on Tuesday in plenary.
Denmark, Poland and Portugal had hoped that the dossier would be the subject of a discussion in Council. While aware of the difficulties of several delegations, the Luxembourg Presidency said that the best solution was to pursue the legislative procedure as planned so as not to create a precedent. Ministers managed, in May 2004, to reach a political agreement in the form of a “gentleman's agreement” and to go back on this agreement would have brought into question all the promises made, thus shattering confidence between Member States.
The Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Hungary and Latvia have therefore issued written declarations giving details of the position that they will defend during second reading. For some Member States, such as the Netherlands and Poland, the declaration has made it possible for the common position to be formally adopted while taking into account the opinion of their respective national parliaments which had taken a stance against the political agreement. Poland stresses the contradiction that exists between Article 4 of the draft directive, whereby a computer programme as such cannot be a patentable invention, and Article 5 paragraph 2. According to a Council press release, the latter article would bring the directive into line with current practice in the European Patents Office and in Member States. The Netherlands and Latvia explicitly confirm that the directive must above all exclude from the scope of patentability all inventions of a non-technical nature, as well as pure software. Denmark hopes there will be clear rules to ensure interoperability. Hungary points out that the directive should take account of the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises.
The Commission welcomes adoption by the Council of its common position. Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: “I will now engage constructively with both the European Parliament and the Council to reach a compromise. (…). I will work to make sure these concerns are taken into account in the interest of a balanced result”.