Re: [Patents] Decision making procedure for the swpat directive

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

> It seems the first vote is in the European Parliament by qualified
> majority (is that 75% ?). But even if they reject it, the Council
> (ministers of member states) has a say and may have it voted again in
> Parliament, this time with simple majority (but absolute majority for
> ammending it). And it goes on a little more...

Since constitutional values related to the general freedom principle and
derived freedoms such as expression, choice of profession etc are
involved, could it be that more than an ordinary majority is required?
At least until recently there was an unanimity principle in the Council
and it was then waived for certain matters of economic policy.  This one
is clearly more than a matter of economic policy.

Unfortunately I missed some classes on this also, although I've been
reading a book about european community law.  So much of this stuff is
outdated even at the time of buying the book.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
100,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/