Strasburg, 09/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner for the Single Market Charlie McCreevy declared on Tuesday in Strasbourg, following the formal adoption of the Council joint position on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions (EUROPE of 8 March, p.9), that "the ball is not in the European Parliament's court". "You can, of course, reject or substantially modify the proposal. If the EP decides to reject it, the Commission will respect your decision. I will not propose a new directive", the Commissioner said. Mr McCreevy said he was prepared to give "the appropriate consideration" to any amendments proposed by MEPs in the second reading procedure (codecision), acknowledging that improvements could be made to the text. Mr McCreevy nevertheless warned that in such a complex dossier, any modification should be subject to a "rigorous examination". "The directive cannot be reviewed from top to bottom", he warned, noting that there was a need to maintain a balance between encouraging innovation and avoiding paralysing competition. "A new wind is blowing through this dossier", said the Commissioner.
Hans-Peter Martin (independent, Austria) wondered if the Commissioner was not shooting himself in the foot by presenting such a draft, and attacked the giants of the sector who, he says, try to strangle small software developers. Michel Rocard (PSE, France) talked of “the malaise which is seizing the world of the web" in this matter. “In this draft directive, we do not find any clear boundaries between what is patentable and what is not”, he lamented. Anders Samuelsen (ALDE, Denmark) asked the Commissioner if he had correctly understood the objections of the Danish government at the adoption of the text without debate in the Competitiveness Council.
The EP committee on legal affairs, which brought the matter up on Monday evening, indicated that it must now proceed to the second reading. The Parliamentary committee will discuss this dossier on 30 March. In the three months (four if the procedure is extended) after the announcement of the Council joint position in plenary, the EP can approve, reject or amend the position in the second reading. In the case of approval or the absence of a decision within the specified deadline, the act is said to be adopted as it stands. In the case of rejection, (which requires an absolute majority of members of the Parliament, that is a minimum of 367 votes regardless of how many MEPs participate in the vote), the procedure is closed and can only be reopened on the basis of a new Commission proposal. The EP can also adopt amendments to the joint position - again with an absolute majority. If the Council approves all the EP's amendments, the act is adopted. If the Council cannot do this, the Treaty requires that a conciliation committee be convened which, of course, can succeed or fail (in which case the text is not adopted).