New Proposal for EU Patent Language Regime by Belgian Presidency to be Discussed Tomorrow

Only recently I reported that, due to predominant national interests, the October meeting of the Competitiveness Council did not bring any improvement to the deadlock between the trilingiual language regime as proposed by the EU Commission, and alternative solutions, such as the multilingual language system supported by Spain and Italy (see provisional conclusion of the Council). Particulary, the latest compromise (non-paper) proposed by the Belgian EU Presidency was "not considered sufficient to remove the deadlock" by the parties, whereas the Belgian Presidency was reported to not loosing hopes that the Competitive Council can still find a fair compromise in this November. In this situation, it was reported today that the well-informed EurActiv network has seen a new compromise text proposed by the Belgiam Presidency, which is hoped to have the potential to break the deadlock and lead to an historic deal at an extraordinary Competitiveness Council on 10 November 2010 (tomorrow). The key element of the new proposal appears to be an open-ended transitional period during which translations of EU patents should be available only in English, but not in French or German, whereas the permanten regime, upon which English, French and German will become the three fully-fledged official languages for the EU patent, will enter into force only after the transitional period has ended. Apparently, the Beligian Presidency tries to convince especially Spain and Italy but also Poland and Portugal, which oppose the three-language system on the table, by vagueness as to the duration of the transitional period and by a so-called "review clause" ensuring another debate on the language regime before the permanent regime will enter into force after the transitional period endend. As to the prospect of such a compromise, EurActiv already tapped some diplomatic sources speculating that the proposed transitional period "could be up to 15 years", that "a review clause could possibly be part of a final compromise" and that "Poland and Italy support the idea of a review clause [while] Spain is maintaining a tough stance". No information is currently available on the attitude of France and Germany towards this new move. Should the "historic deal" not be settled tomorrow, the ministers of the Competitive Council have further chances to reach an agreement at meetings on 26 November and 10 December. The new Belgian proposal ap…