2004-12-17 Adoption of Software Patent Agreement by Environment or Agriculture/Fishery Ministers?

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According to Council documents, the software patent directive was scheduled to be adopted as an A item (without discussion) at the environment Council next monday, the 20th of december 2004, along with a bathing water managment directive. Later in the afternoon it was moved to the Agriculture & Fisheries Council of tuesday, to conform with what Minister Brinkhorst had told the Dutch Parliament, which has been regularly complaining about misinformation by the ministry.

• Environment council A-item list version 2, software patents, PDF creation date Thu 16 Dec 14:21, file timestamp Thu 16 Dec 14:46

• Environment council A-item list version 3, bathing water only, PDF creation date Fri 17 Dec 16:53, file timestamp Fri 17 Dec 16:55

Ante Wessels (Vrijschrift/FFII) reports:

• This morning the NL ministry of economic affairs stated to a journalist that "monday" was a mistake in the agenda, that it will be tuesday. Probably at the end of the meeting monday the ministers will look at each other and ask: did we do it? Well, what do we know? Nobody ever tells us something.

Schedule on Council Web Page

• http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/envir/83092.pdf

• environment council session

  • 2632nd
  • ENVIRONMENT
  • Council meeting
  • Brussels, 20 December 2004
    • (+10.15)
    • Justus Lipsius Building
      • Press Centre
      • ***********
  • PUBLIC DELIBERATIONS 1 The deliberations concern the following B items (with discussion): Regulation on the application of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters to EC institutions and bodies = Political agreement Directive on batteries and accumulators and spent batteries and accumulators = Political agreement and the following A items (without discussion): Adoption of a common position of the Council with a view to the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the management of bathing water quality and repealing Directive 76/160/EEC Adoption of a common position of the Council with a view to the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions Journalists and general public can follow the debates/deliberations (close circuit TV distribution) at the press centre in 11 languages.

Participants of Environment Council

The following have been confirmed by calls to the concerned ministries:

• Denmark Minister of the Environment Connie Hedegaard (Conservative) Miljøministeriet / M.o.t. Environment Hoejbro Plads 4 1200 Koebenhavn K DENMARK Phone 33 92 76 00

  E-mail: mim@mim.dk

At a previous Environment Council meeting, the participants were as follows:

• 2610th Council Meeting Environment Luxembourg, 14 October 2004 President Mr Pieter VAN GEEL State Secretary for Environment of the Netherlands PARTICIPANTS The Governments of the Member States and the European Commission were represented as follows: Belgium: Mr Bruno TOBBACK Minister for the Environment and Minister for Pensions Ms Evelyne HUYTEBROECK Minister of the Brussels Capital Regional Government, with responsibility for the Environment Czech Republic: Mr Libor AMBROZEK Minister for the Environment Denmark: Ms Connie HEDEGAARD Minister for the Environment Germany: Mr Jürgen TRITTIN Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety Estonia: Mr Olavi TAMMEMÄE Deputy Minister for the Environment Greece: Mr Stavros KALOGIANNIS State Secretary for the Environment, Regional Planning and Public Works Spain: Ms Cristina NARBONA RUIZ Minister for the Environment France: Mr Serge LEPELTIER Minister for Ecology and Sustainable Development Ireland: Mr Dick ROCHE Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Italy: Mr Alessandro PIGNATTI Deputy Permanent Representative Cyprus: Mr Efthymios EFTHYMIOU Minister for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment Latvia: Mr Raimonds VEJONIS Minister for the Environment Lithuania: Mr Arunas KUNDROTAS Minister for the Environment Luxembourg: Mr Lucien LUX Minister for the Environment, Minister for Transport Hungary: Mr Miklós PERSÁNYI Minister for the Environment and Water Management Malta: Mr George PULLICINO Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment Netherlands: Mr Pieter VAN GEEL State Secretary for Housing, Planning and the Environment Ms Melanie SCHULTZ van HAEGEN-MAAS GEESTERANUS State Secretary for Transport, Public Works and Water Management Austria: Mr Josef PRÖLL Federal Minister for Agriculture, Forestry, the Environment and Water Management Poland: Mr Krysztof SZAMALEK State Secretary, Ministry of the Environment Portugal: Mr Jorge MOREIRA DA SILVA State Secretary attached to the Minister for the Environment and Regional Planning Slovenia: Mr Janez KOPAC Minister for the Environment, Town and Country Planning and Energy Slovakia: Mr László MIKLÓS Minister for the Environment Finland: Mr Jan-Erik ENESTAM Minister for the Environment Sweden: Ms Lena SOMMESTAD Minister for the Environment United Kingdom: Ms Margaret BECKETT Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Commission Ms Margot WALLSTRÖM Member

What Governments can still do

Governments and their representatives are still free to

• add a unilateral declaration (like Latvia, which supports the proposal for formal reasons but stated clear opposition in a declaration, or the Dutch government, which mentioned an opposing motion from its Parliament)
• ask for votes to be recounted, the issue to be treated as a B-item.

Reasoning can be found at Cons041215En.