[Fsfe-uk] Swpat accepted; what now?

[Alex Hudson]

Guys,

Some people will have seen this already, but for everyone's benefit: the
European Council have just accepted the draft swpat directive and have
completed their first reading.

(The restart that the Parliament called for was denied; a number of
countries also asked that the A-item be changed to a B-item, that was
also denied. More information at http://wiki.ffii.org/Cons050307En ).

While I think there will still be a debate about the process the Council
have gone through, and whether or not they have actually behaved
correctly from a procedural point of view, I would like to discuss
future activity anticipating a second reading at the Parliament (which
must come soon).

I'm not sure what the procedure at second reading will be, but I've been
told before that new amendments may be tabled (usually, you can only
re-table amendments you tabled at the first reading). We obviously need
to go to our MEPs and try to get them to produce a directive even better
than the first reading. As well as ensuring they are aware of the harm
the directive could cause, I think a worthwhile tactic will be to point
out the behaviour of the Council - I think the second reading at the
council will be a very different affair to the first.

I would to see even more people participate in getting their MEP onside,
but I wonder what other activity would be useful? Should we be trying to
get more media coverage? 

Cheers,

Alex.