Ultim’ora

17 February 2005 The European Parliament is requesting a renewed referral of the draft software patent directive to the European Parliament. After a 19:2 vote in JURI for the motion on 2nd February, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliaments has adopted the JURI motion for a return to a 1st reading on the software patent directive.

The decision appeared uncertain until the last minute. The Tabling Office (Harald Romer, EPP) had not put the issue on today’s agenda, suggesting that it was appropriate to wait for the Council to adopt its Common Position first, as Commissioner McCreevy had suggested. However, due to an initiative of the Greens which found support in the other groups, the motion was eventually tabled and approved by the Conference of Presidents, i.e. the heads of the political groups in the Parliament.