EU Commissioner Explains Position on Software Patentability Directive to Parliament

According to a March 3, 2005 report from Europarl, European Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy addressed the Parliament's Conference of Presidents on why the Commission is refusing to resubmit its draft directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. Mr McCreevy explained that the Commission preferred to stick with its existing text and await the outcome of the Council meeting of 7 March so as to avoid "changes which might lead to some chaos" in the procedure. He also said that, if the Member States were unable to reach agreement on 7 March, it would be up to the Council to decide what to do next. As to the next steps, he agreed that Parliament would have the opportunity to react at second reading to the Council's common position, "assuming there is one."

He added that Parliament would have to draw conclusions from this situation, particularly with regard to the interinstitutional agreement on relations between Parliament and the Commission, and said "We will see how we administer the future."