EU Commission pushing privatisation of natural monopolies

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

Under

        Coroporate Europe Observatory
        http://www.xs4all.nl/~ceo/

        Guardian Unlimited: A privatisers' hit list
        http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,686162,00.html

you can find another EU paper which is promoting the privatisation of
public infrastrucures world-wide and was apparently negotiated only
with a limited circle of lobbyists and which seems to be targeting all
kinds of public services for which there is no evidence that
privatisation would be of any help in fostering competition and
efficiency.

Meanwhile we have the full text of the German Monopoly Commission's
recent report on our website with an english summary at

       http://swpat.ffii.org/news/index.en.html#mopoko0207

This report is very critical of both the European Commission and the
European Patent Office.  It explains that the EPO's patent granting
practise is incompatible with the written law, and that legalising
this practise will lead to further monopolisation in an area where
strong network effects need to be counter-balanced rather than further
aggravated by political measures.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608   
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
120,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/