Results of the Elections to the European Parliament of 2004-06-13

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Reports of Election Results

• http://www.elections2004.eu.int/ep-election/sites/en/results1306/global.html

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/vote2004/euro/html/1.stm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election_2004

Preliminary Analysis

Summary

In most countries the patent-critical forces were strengthened.

EPP (conservatives and christian democrats) is still the strongest group but the parties of the pro-patent hardliners Wuermeling and Harbour were both weakened by 7-10% (despite opposition role against unpopular national government) and Fourtou's party was cut to only half the size of the French Socialists, to whom the software patent critics owe very much. Eastern Europe is likely to strengthen the growing camp of critics within EPP.

EU-wide Parties

Within these groups, only the small ones have unified positions on software patentability, mostly siding with FFII. The large groups were weakened, and within them the patent-critical national parties were strengthened. This trend would be even more apparent if the new member states were taken out of the statistics.

(Projection at 2004-06-14 05:15)

By Country

[ AT | BE | CY | CZ | DE | DK | EE | ES | FI | FR | GR | HU | IE | IT | LT | LU | LV | MT | NL | PL | PT | SE | SI | SK | UK ]

Comments

Hartmut Pilch (ffii)

While on many issues the parties are indistinguishable from each other, the software patent issue showed clear differences, and many opinion leaders within the electorate took note. It became apparent which parties are willing to treat legislative issues in a responsible way. Failure of an organisation to use its members' brains is often a symptom of an organisational illness, and such illnesses will lead to other failures and ultimately to losses in elections. It is nice to see this fact reflected so clearly this time.