Dutch Parliament Votes Against Software Patent Directive

A few hours ago the Dutch parliament has decided in a close vote (71-69) that the Dutch government should not vote for the proposal for a EU Directive on software patents. This means that the Dutch government is instructed to vote against the Software Patent Directive if it is put on the agenda at a meeting of the European Council of Ministers next week. The decision of the Dutch parliament strengthens attempts of MEPs of the European Parliament to send the Software Directive back to the drawing board.

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Register oversight of the coming voting process
Thru webwereld (Dutch)

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Later: Karl Lenz has a reaction to the news and discusses the voting process on the Software Patent Directive, which would likely be presented as an A-item (i.e., a formal point without discussion) at the Counsel's meeting:

Most A-items really don’t require further discussion, since the political agreement actually exists. With those, it clearly makes sense to skip a formal vote and save those 50 seconds in the process.

In contrast, in this case, the “political agreement” does not really exist. It is pure fiction. Once you call a vote, multiple Member States needed for a majority would vote against.

Therefore, in this case the whole point of avoiding the vote is not the legitimate reason of saving time, but the deeply disturbing wish to fabricate a majority where there is none.

Lenz also refers to a post by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, which has a link to the motion the Dutch parliament adopted and even a video stream of the debate (Dutch of course, parliamentary style).