Re: [Fsfe-uk] Draft PR on swpat directive

[Alex Hudson]

On Sat, 2003-09-27 at 21:48, Paul wrote:
> > > I would comment that this is not the end of the line either way as it
> > > still has to go before the European equivalent of the House of Lords and
> > > then back down to the lower house.
> > 
> > Do you feel this is not answered in the penultimate para?
> 
> I think it was a bit befuddled. If it was described more as in what
> happens in the UK, it would have helped.

I think that's too far-sighted, if you're talking about the PR outlining
the route to UK law. The end of the European process is not even nearly
in sight yet. As I understand it, we have these remaining steps:

      * Council of Ministers approves or amends the directive
      * Second reading in the Parliament: again, another chance to amend
        the directive
      * The council then have a second stab at it
      * If the council and parliament cannot agree on a common
        directive, they form a concilliation committee for up to 6 weeks
      * Parliament then gets a third reading; if they still don't agree
        with the amended directive then the directive lapses.

At only that stage does it get adopted, and then you have the period in
which the member states enact it (I think). To try and outline all of
this process is, IMO, beyond the scope of a PR exercise. The relevancy
to the UK is just that this is European legislation, and therefore would
affect us. 

To fall back to football philosophy, I think we have to take things one
game at a time at the moment. For example, if the Council remove many of
the good amendments it's unlikely the AFFS would continue to support the
directive. 

Cheers,

Alex.