On Tue, 2005-01-25 at 16:36 +0000, Sam Liddicott wrote:
Precisely. So pushing an addition to an existing bill, long after discussion for the bill closes and a day before the vote, they tag some patent law into it hoping that the council won't know enough to question it.
If I did this with a printer on a shopping trolly after I had been through the checkouts everyone would recognize it for what it is.
Somehow because it happens in a non-commercial setting those involved seem to think it is legitimate. It is theft of proper representation at least, surely?
The above isn't really a correct representation of what happened. The Council think they have political agreement on the issue, so it doesn't matter what committee it goes in front of - agriculture, fisheries, silly walks, any of them. If it's a A-item it's adopted without discussion or vote. There's nothing particularly underhanded or dodgy about that - they already had a vote on the issue.
The problem the Council have is that the agreement they think they have is, in reality, non-existent. Sufficient countries now disagree that the measure cannot be passed. Without political agreement, adding it as an A-item (to any agenda) is obviously difficult. I think they know that if there were further discussion, any agreement they had would be seen to be non-existent.
What is encouraging is that there are countries standing against this legislation - Poland and Holland - even though they are under a lot of political pressure. It seems, though, that this Council deadlock will only be resolved if the Parliament restart the process.. :/
Cheers,
Alex.