Hoe lang nog voor de Commissie-Barroso?

[Bart Meerdink]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Het schijnt dat José Manuel Barroso vastbesloten is om duidelijk te
maken wie de dienst uitmaakt in de EU: het parlement of de bobo's. Hij
heeft al eenmaal in het stof moeten bijten (Buttiglione) maar is
blijkbaar nogal hardleers.

Volgens mij kan het EP de Commissie gewoon afzetten, en dat moeten ze
dan maar doen.

Wordt er al gezocht naar geschikte opvolger voor hem? Misschien was vers
bloed uit een van de nieuwe lidstaten?

En kan volgens "het verdrag tot vaststelling van een grondwet voor
Europa?" het EP in de toekomst mensen als Barroso en McCreevy wegsturen
zonder de hele Commissie met hen?

Bart Meerdink

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/56932

01.03.2005 16:32
Software patents: EU Commission officially rejects a restart to the
proceedings

As regards the tug-of-war proceedings on the adoption of an EU Directive
on the Patentability of "Computer-implemented Inventions" a restart from
scratch of the legislative process is no longer an option. This the
President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, has made
clear in a letter to Josep Borrell Fontelles, the President of the
European Parliament. In it Mr. Barroso resolutely rejects the request by
the representatives of the peoples that a new draft proposal on the
Software Patents Directive be submitted to parliament. Instead, the
procedure as yet outstanding whereby the Directive is formally adopted
was to be concluded as soon as possible.

Mr. Barroso expected that "at this point in the codecision procedure"
the directive be "formalized" as quickly as possible, a spokesman of the
Commission in a talk with heise online said while quoting the core
message of the brief letter. In taking this position the Commission is
assuming that a consensus on the Directive exists within the Council of
Ministers and that this body composed of representatives of the
governments of the member states came to a decision on the matter in May
of last year. That the position of the ministers at the time rested on
shaky foundations right from the start and meanwhile - due to intensense
criticism of the proposal from within the ministers´ own ranks and in
the wake of the official accession to the EU of new member states
critically disposed to the draft - is no longer considered to reflect
the opinion of the majority, Mr. Barroso fails to mention completely.
For him the next step in the proceedings is the second reading of the
draft directive in the European Parliament.

The Council of the European Union, a.k.a. the Council of Ministers, has
not as yet officially passed its position, however. Only last week after
a string of postponements did the Luxembourgian Presidency of the
Council of the European Union again take the hot potato off the agenda
of a meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries, this time
the one that took place on Monday. Moreover, in the meantime official
requests by the national parliaments in Germany, the Netherlands and
Spain have been addressed to their respective governments to henceforth
withdraw support for the course taken by the Council in Brussels.

The Commission apparently does not share the reservations to the effect
that in the face of a contrary position adopted by the Council of
Ministers, the European Parliament will likely confront an uphill
struggle to defend its far-reaching proposals for amendments in the
course of the second reading. "It is very easy to make amendments," the
spokesman told heise online. "That is how democracy works in the EU," he
added. To make amendments in the course of the second reading the
peoples´ representatives will require an absolute majority of votes,
something that given the controversial nature of the subject will be
exceedingly difficult to achieve. What is more, every abstention as well
as every absent member of parliament will be counted as a vote in favor
of the EU Council's position. In theory the Parliament could also reject
the position of the Council of Ministers in toto - in which case no
directive would come about. (Stefan Krempl) / (Robert W. Smith) / (jk/c't)

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