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Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Compulsory Licensing of Patents Relating to the Manufacture of Pharmaceutical Products for Export to Countries with Public Health Problems.

The EU Council has formally reported in

Document 15323/05 on the outcome of the European Parliament's first reading concerning a Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on compulsory licensing of patents relating to the manufacture of pharmaceutical products for export to countries with public health problems.

"[...] In accordance with the provisions of Article 251(2) of the EC Treaty and the joint declaration on practical arrangements for the codecision procedure, a number of informal contacts have taken place between the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission with a view to reaching an agreement on this dossier at first reading, thereby avoiding the need for a second reading and conciliation.

In this context, the rapporteur, Mr Van Hecke (ALDE - BE), presented 75 compromise amendments to the proposal for a Regulation, on behalf of the Committee on International Trade. These amendments had been agreed during the informal contacts referred to above.

The plenary adopted the 75 compromise amendments to the proposal for a Regulation. No other amendments were adopted. The amendments adopted correspond to what was agreed between the three institutions and ought therefore to be acceptable to the Council. Consequently, once the legal linguists have scrutinized the text, the Council should be in a position to adopt the legislative act.

The text of the amendments adopted and the European Parliament legislative resolution are annexed
to this note. [...]"

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