JURI Decision about Restart of Procedure on Software Patents
-> [ deutsch ] [ Restart | Motion of 61 MEPs ]
On 2 or 3 February 2005, the Committee for Legal Affairs of the European Parliament (JURI) will decide on whether the Parliament should have the option of returning to a 1st reading of the proposed software patent directive once the Council adopts a common position. This decision must be taken before the Council's Position is transmitted to the Parliament. We explain the procedure and present the arguments.
Calendar
2005-01-25 UNICE member associations ask their members to lobby against restart, arguing that Council position is good for them and EP will have difficulty in getting the required high majorities to seriously amend it in 2nd reading
2005-01-24 Software patents not on the Fishery Agenda, the way for JURI is free again
2005-01-19 Commission attempts to preclude JURI decision on restart but fails due to Polish government's resistance
2005-01-10 restart motion of 61 MEPs, rejected by EP tabling office in defiance of rule 55(4) and without an explanation (tabling office policy seems to be to strengthen the party groups)
Guides and Papers for a renewed referral to Parliament
Concise paper on procedural arguments, (2 pages, pdf)
Prof. Brian Kahin gives a background paper on the changed situation (4 pages, pdf)
Flyer (1 page, pdf, sxw, doc)
(Please publish links to translations here.)
Procedural Basis
Practical: How To Contact Members Of The EU-Parliament Committee On Legal Affairs (JURI)
List of MEPs that who members of JURI from the official site of the European Parliament. Please look up the fax numbers and email addresses.
- CSV, xls, sxc file on demand (info at ffii.org)
You may want to read the Lobbying guide for restarting the EU's legislative process on the software patent directive, please always be polite and friendly (we have been forwarded some massmails that are sent to numerous MEPs at once, do not attempt to build any two-way communication and do not even mentioning the recipient MEP's names. That creates a bad impression and may even make MEPs think "not again ... let's go straight through the 2nd reading, as quickly as possible, so that we don't get so much junkmail ..." )
Letters To Committee On Legal Affairs (JURI)
To make it easier for you to write your own personal letter, you can take a look at these and use them as a starting point (please do not copy 1-to-1!).
Translation of this letter from English into Spanish (translator: CARLOS OLALLA MARTINEZ): http://www.tinet.org/~com.ea/
NightLabs GmbH (English, Deutsch, Francais)
Please publish your own letters here.
Other (related) letters
Write to non-legal affairs MEPs
Note that although JURI only has members from at, cz, de, es, fi, fr, hu, it, lt, nl, pl, uk, you still can ask MEPs from your country to put the message through to them, this is also helpful to get a friendly climate in the groups when they discuss whether to put it on the agenda of JURI and the conference of presidents.
Moreover, it also might be helpful to write to the MEP you are in contact with in your place, he might put the message through.