why EU junk legislation survives

[Hartmut Pilch <phm@a2e.de>]

> What about this EUCD? Are there any movements to abolish this directive
> (it is possible; one directive may replace another; even Maastricht
> Treaty has been replaced by the Nice Treaty), or to amend it? And, a
> question to Hartmut: what about Germany and Austria? Have they
> _ratified_ EUCD? Or only are going to?

DE and AT have voted for laws which implement the EU anti-circumvention
directive (I think "copyright directive" is a misleading name).

Movements to replace a directive have to be initiated by governments or by
the European Commission.  At this level I can't see anything like that
happening.

It would be difficult to imagine with the anti-circumvention directive,
because its purpose and effects are completely unclear (not even the
explanatory texts presented to the parlamentarians explained correctly
what it is about), and even spectacular cases like Skylarov or Felten,
whose reproducibility under this directive is uncertain, may not show
clearly enough to politicians what this is about.

If politicians in Germany did find that there is a problem, they would
have to pass a resolution in the parliament asking the government to do
something, and the governmental officials in the ministery of justice
would then go to the Council, poorly present the case, and afterwards
report that nothing can be done because there is no international
consensus.  The parliament, if unsatisfied, would have no other choice but
to try to elect a new chancellor, which of nobody would do.

Any attempt by a national parliament to do anything about bad EU laws will
usually be dismissed as unrealistic even before anyone attempts it.

A recent book here quotes Guenter Verheugen, CEC commissioner for
enlargement, as saying something like

        If the EU was a foreign country that applied for membership in the
        EU, we would have to reject its application for lack of democratic
        character.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
140,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/