(13/01/05) Europese Groenen willen nieuwe start voor richtlijn softwarepatenten

• 2005-01-13

Greens call for new start to software patents directive

The Greens in the European Parliament today sent a letter to the Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee calling for a restart to the legal procedure concerning the controversial software patents directive. In the submission to the President of the Committee, Giuseppe Gargani, Greens/EFA Co-President Monica Frassoni and Austrian MEP Eva Lichtenberger asked for the point to be included on the agenda of the Committee's next session (on Wednesday, 19 January).

Commenting on the initiative, Eva Lichtenberger, Member of the Legal Affairs, said:

"We need a new start for the software patents directive. The situation in Council, who are now responsible for the legal procedure, is so confused that Parliament must again take the issue into its hands. The Ministers committed a big mistake on 18 May when they ignored Parliament's improvements and adopted a legislative proposal which principally serves the interests of big companies. Since then the situation has changed dramatically and some European governments were put under pressure by their own national parliaments to stop the introduction of software patents through the backdoor."

"To admit software patenting would be a big setback for the Europe's growing IT sector. Small and medium enterprises would be hit especially hard as they cannot afford neither patenting fees nor the legal costs that would be involved. Member States should again consider if they are shooting themselves in the foot by pursuing US-inspired software patents. By doing so they would be gravely diminishing the innovative capacity and flexibility of European IT companies."

Monica Frassoni added:

"The Greens will now create the necessary pressure so that a new procedure is started as soon as possible. With this new beginning we hope to finally be able to reach to a reasonable solution.