swpat, where are we?

Jeroen Dekkers jeroen at dekkers.cx
Fri Sep 3 10:11:45 UTC 2004


At Fri, 03 Sep 2004 01:49:30 +0100,
MJ Ray wrote:
> 
> I was directed to 
> http://europa.eu.int/abc/doc/off/bull/en/200405/p103027.htm#anch0042 
> which is the EU Bulletin claiming the council agreed common position 
> in May. This is also reflected in the "legislative observatory" record 
> for the swpat proposal, although no new EuroParl date has appeared 
> there. I had heard there was some dispute about it. What information 
> source is binding, if any?

That's a plain lie. The council made a political agreement on 17 and
18 May. A political agreement is an internal Council thing, it has no
legal status. Every country can still change its vote and that's
indeed what's happening at the moment. The parlaiament in The
Netherlands already told the government to change their vote and maybe
the same will happen in Hungary.

The council text still has to be formally adopted as a common
position. This will likely be done as soon as possible, before more
countries change their mind. We don't know when exactly, but I think
it's very likely that it will be at the Competitiveness Council of 24
September.

>  From the draft agenda, it looks like the 13-16 September plenary will 
> be concerned with budgets, stability, human rights and Iraq. The next 
> plenary is 13 October 2004 - 28 October 2004, so watch 
> http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep/owa/p_calses.plenary?ilg=EN&iorig=plenary&istcmd= 
> for an agenda in case swpat appears.

The Council first has to adopt a common position before it can be
scheduled for a second reading the European Parliament.

Jeroen Dekkers



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