Draft Letter by Erik Josefsson to Council meeting participants

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Dear Mr/Mrs.

Due to the Commissions unexpected denial of the Parliament's request for a new fresh start on the software patentes directive, the future of the directive is now in the hands of the Competetiveness Council which will meet in a few hours (10:00 Monday morning, 7 March 2005).

As well unexpected, but on the contrary most welcome, is Denmark's decision three days ago to, at this meeting, propose a solution for renegotiating the text in the Council (which would be a different means to the same end). This is technically done by first withdrawing the directive from the published list of A-items, and second to propose it to be discussed as a B-item on a subsequent Council meeting.

Please accept my apologies for urgently calling on not only your attention, but also for your help, but there is an immediate risk the Commission not accept such a proposal. It is most likely the Commission, and maybe even the Council Precidency (Luxemburg) will argue a once agreed upon text can never be (re)negotiated, even if there no longer exists a qualified majority for it.

This is a) not true according to the Council's Rules of Procedure b) against the explicit will of member state parliaments like the german Bundestag, the dutch Tweede Kamer and the spanish Senate.

Please forward the following message to the ministers and representatives who speaks on behalf of your country tomorrow morning:

• The breach of the "unwritten rule" that the transformation of political agreements into common positions should be automatic is in this unique case necessary. The Council must be flexible enough to discuss a political developement that was already present 18 May 2004 and is now fully recognised by european parliaments.
• The directive project must not be sacrificed for the sake of unwritten rules and the fear of setting a "dangerous precedent". It is therefore of paramount importance to protect the directive project against withdrawal attempts.

It would be most valuable to have your active support, knowing that the linking between the Council diplomats and political realities both in national parliaments and among european citizens must basically be done by hand by dedicated politicians.

To my knowledge, a renegotiation proposal will be supported by Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Please encourage your national represenatives to support it too.

Best regards,