Breakaway countries bid to end deadlock on EU patent
This article was originally published in SRA
Several EU member states are planning to break the deadlock on the translation arrangements for the future single EU patent by using a special procedure under which a group of at least nine countries can press ahead on draft legislation that would otherwise require all 27 countries to be on board1,2.
Frustrated by the recalcitrance over the translation arrangements being shown by Italy and, to a lesser extent, Spain3,4, some half a dozen countries led by the Netherlands and Sweden are to ask the European Commission if they can go ahead with the patent proposal on the basis of the rarely used "enhanced co-operation" procedure.
Their view is that all other avenues have been tried without success, that it will not be possible to get unanimous support for the translation arrangements in the foreseeable future, and that the EU patent proposal cannot be held up any longer.
There have been suggestions that the move is a tactic to put pressure on Italy to fall in line and drop its demand for Italian to be an official language of the EU patent. However, a spokesman for the council said it was more a case of these countries having no other option but to press ahead on their own so as not to jeopardise the future of the single patent5.
At a meeting of the Competitiveness Council on 25 November, the Swedish and Dutch governments called on the commission to state whether enhanced co-operation would be a possibility in this case. The internal market commissioner, Michel Barnier, said that it should be possible under the EU Treaty and the internal market rules. This view was backed up by a representative of the legal services of the council, who said that the conditions for using enhanced co-operation – including that the purpose of the legislation cannot otherwise be achieved – were indeed met.
The commission will now wait for a formal request for enhanced co-operation from the member states concerned, which will probably come within the next few days. The commission will then carry out a full legal analysis of the request, and "we will see what is possible", said Mr Barnier. The matter will be discussed again at the next competitiveness council meeting on 10 December.
References
1. Council of the European Union press release (provisional version), 16911/10, 25 November 2010, www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/NewsWord/en/intm/118015.doc
2. Council of the European Union meeting, 25 November 2010, http://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/media/render-summary-list/vocabulary_id/tags/term_id/365
3. Personal communication, Council of the European Union, 26 November 2010
4. EU patent talks run aground as Italy and Spain stand firm on translations, Regulatory Affairs Pharma, 11 November 2010
5. Belgians offer more concessions in quest for EU patent deal, Regulatory Affairs Pharma, 8 November 2010