Euro Patent Restart Demand Repeated by Parliament

sebFlyte writes "ZDNet UK is reporting that the European Parliament's Conference of Presidents has ratified and repeated the demands of the Parliament for the computer-implemented inventions directive to be sent back to the drawing board, even though the Commission has refused to re-start it after previous demands. From the article: "It is not certain that the Commission will comply with the request of the Parliament, nor that it will use the opportunity to draft a good text ... The new Commission is not obliged to follow the Parliament's request and they might still try to keep all options open and ask the Council to adopt the agreement of last May without a new vote, so as to gain even more options for themselves."

Comments

Profit Anyone?

[LordPhantom]

FTA [i]Hugo Lueders, the director of public policy at pro-patent organisation CompTIA, is also unsure what will happen next. He contends that software patents are needed to ensure that the EU can keep to the goals set by the "Lisbon Agenda" --- that the EU will become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy by 2010.[/i] Does that comment sound like: 1. Establish Software Patents 2. ??????? 3. Thriving and Inventive Computer Industry (ha!) 4. Profit! to anyone else?!?

Twats

[gowen]

I consider myself a pro-European Brit, but the intransigence and power of the unelected Commision to act in the face of the elected Parliament makes me foam at the mouth like Norman Tebbit. Is it really so hard for them to see that those with a mandate should be sovereign?

I want a close and strong European Union -- I just don't want this European Union.

I'd patent Paper-Shuffling...

[ackthpt]

I'd patent Paper-Shuffling, foot-dragging and obfuscation, but I see there's Prior Art.

The players:

European Parliament's Conference of Presidents

the Commission

the Parliament

The new Commission

the Council

Ok, I'm lost. Though I think I can see why nothing's happening.

It reminds me of a The Committee Game someone wrote on our PDP11 about 25 years ago. (The committee forms to form a plan of action to deal with the nefarious Kally Spaeth, but first they head up to McDonalds for refreshments in the arcane Dodge Dart, and generally it's a lot of running around without actually doing anything about the nefarious Kally Spaeth. I think it was in parody.)

What the ??????

[Asprin]

Does the EU even *have* a government? This is so confusing! Motions that can be executed with no vote, organizational groups that do what they want regardless of the vote? What gives? It's like the thing was designed *by*, bureucrats *for* bureaucrats, and voting is just a technicality.

Can somebody help to make me less ignorant and point me at an online EU-civics 101 tutorial that outlines how the EU government is organized, what are the responsibilities of the major components and a general overview of the rules?

Please?

EU Law Trails?

[Doc Ruby]

Would someone please clarify the players in EU lawmaking, and their role in the process? America at least has floated cartoons making our quaint process clear to naive schoolchildren (of any age). Where do members of the following bodies come from: election by people per nation / across the EU; or sent as representatives of national governments; or selected by the EU government itself? Where do the laws/regulations/rules/treaties/agreements they produce come from: national governments; EU government subdivisions; independent citizens; overseas committees like the US; nongovernment foreign or European policy organizations? And where do the rules they produce go: to another body for decision, to national governments for ratification, or just into effect as law?

The players:
- EU Parliament
- EU Commission
- EU Council
- Any others (like, eg, some kind of "EU Parliament/Council Reconciliation Committe")?

Re:EU Law Trails?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wikipedia helps there:

The European Commission

The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive of the European Union. Its primary roles are to propose and enact legislation, and to act as 'guardian of the treaties' which provide the legal basis for the EU. The role of the European Commission has some parallels with the executive body of a national government, but also differs in some ways (see below for details).

The Commission currently consists of 25 Commissioners, one from each member state of the EU, supported by an administrative body of several thousand European civil servants. Each Commissioner takes responsibility for a particular area of policy, and heads a department called a Directorate General. The Commission is headed by a President (from November 2004, José Manuel Durão Barroso of Portugal)....

The President of the Commission is chosen by the European Council, but the choice must be approved by the European Parliament. The remaining Commissioners are appointed by the member states in agreement with the President, who must decide the role of each Commissioner. Finally, the new Commission as a whole must be approved by the Parliament....

In addition to its role in approving a new Commission, the European Parliament has the power at any time to force the entire Commission to resign through a vote of no confidence. (This requires a vote that makes up at least two-thirds of those voting and a majority of the total membership of the Parliament).

The European Parliament

The European Parliament is the parliamentary body of the European Union.

Other organisations of European countries such as NATO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the Western European Union have parliamentary assemblies as well, but the European Parliament is unique in that it is directly elected by the people and has legislative power. The members of the parliamentary assemblies of the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the Western European Union are appointed by national parliaments....

The European Parliament is one half of a bicameral legislature (the other half is the Council of the European Union). It has co-legislative power with the Council in most EU policy areas (Codecision procedure), able to accept, amend or reject proposals for Regulations, Directives, decisions, Recommendations and Opinions as it sees fit.

It also has a budgetary function, adopting the final budget of the European Union.

Additionally, Parliament exerts a function of democratic supervision over all the EU's activities, particularly the European Commission, which it has the sole power to approve and dismiss (http://www.euabc.com/index.phtml?word_id=151), and calls to account fit....

The European Parliament represents 450 million citizens of the European Union. Since 13 June 2004, there are 732 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), with a proportionally larger representation for smaller member states. This number was temporarily raised to 788 to accommodate representatives from the ten states that joined the EU on 1 May 2004, but will remain fixed at 732 even after the accession of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007. (Author's note: that's even larger than the US Congress!)

The Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union forms, along with the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union (EU). It contains ministers of the governments of each of the member-states of the EU. The Council of the European Union is sometimes referred to in official European Union documents simply as the Council, and it is of

EU structure

[bfields]

Conference of Presidents, Council, Commission, Parliament.... For the poor confused Americans among us, could somebody draw us the European equivalent of the "how a bill becomes law" flow chart? I'm completely lost.

--Bruce Fields