MEPs vote to sue the Commission for scrapping patents law

The Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) has voted in favour of taking the European Commission to the EU Court of Justice over its decision earlier this year to withdraw a patent reform proposal.

According to three separate sources present at the confidential voting session held on Thursday, 14 MEPs voted in favour of suing the Commission for withdrawing the Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs) proposal and eight voted against. The JURI Committee has 25 MEPs in total.

S&D MEP René Repasi, rapporteur for the decision, told Euractiv in a statement that the withdrawal of SEPs “must be understood as a political decision”, adding that the Parliament will not be “a bystander on the sidelines of the European legislative proposal”.

Repasi said the Commission has failed to provide a convincing explanation for why the Parliament and Council would not have reached an agreement on the proposal.

Reacting to the vote, EPP MEP Adrián Vázquez Lázara said that it reflects Parliament’s concern about the balance of powers between EU institutions. But he added that MEPs should be clear that any legal action will not bring back the withdrawn legislative proposal.

The MEP previously indicated that the EPP – the Parliament’s largest political group – would vote against taking legal action.

Under the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure – specifically under Rule 155 – the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, would have to bring an action on behalf of Parliament.

This could mean either proceeding with the case against the Commission before the Court of Justice, or requesting further discussion with presidents of the political groups within the Conference of Presidents.

It remains unclear what decision Metsola will take. Metsola did not respond to Euractiv’s request for a comment at the time of reporting.

The JURI vote was based on a document dated 29 October, which Euractiv obtained earlier, in which Repasi recommended that Parliament bring an action before the Court of Justice to seek annulment of the Commission’s abrupt withdrawal of the SEPs proposal from its 2025 work programme.

Back in July, Social Democrat MEP Tiemo Wölken – who had been the S&D’s shadow rapporteur on the patents proposal – announced that he would be taking individual legal action against the Commission over the SEPs withdrawal.

(nl)