Open competition and Intellectual Property

8.00 – 9.30 Attend a working breakfast on procurement, in particular for SMEs. Turns out to be very interesting. Proposals are afoot to encourage public authorities to commission innovative solutions and technology, ideally from EU companies, rather than just buy the leading (often US) solution. In other words get out of the mentality of ‘nobody is ever sacked for buying IBM’. DG infosoc are publishing a manual; they seem to be suggesting some kind of preferential treatment.

It is then pointed out by Comptia in their presentation that Mandelson has said we have to have open competition, how can we tell other countries to be open then do something different. The representative from DG Enterprise is then put on the spot to try and bridge the gap between these two views. His solution is to address attitude, rather than have favouritism, and it seems they are bringing out a manual too! Another of the industry representatives points out that the EU constantly bemoans having a fragmented market, and that it will never stop if we have this fragmented approach in the Commission and pleads for them to get their act together. I agree but resist doing a bit of table thumping.

We get to the end of the presentations and all the other MEPs except Pia Noora Kauppi, who is the host, leave. Me being naive again, this means Pia Noora has no option but to put me on the spot to respond! I say that as a Brit and a Liberal it is not surprising that I agree the competition line expounded by Mandelson, but that having a more flexible, entrepreneurial attitude and getting out of the ‘buy safe’ mentality is important.

9.30 Get to office for meeting with David Howarth MP, find he has been delayed so I do a note on Russia and IP to send down to Working Group C (foreign affairs) in case it comes up before I get there. David arrives and we have useful exchanges on issues in his DTI portfolio which covers intellectual property. He tells me that some of the economic analysis I have heard (and which I think is wrong), using the ex-ante and ex-post value of patents and responding to them as monopolies, is out of date economics and it is now accepted that patent have to be treated like property. Halleluiah – nice to find an economist I can agree with, but I thought that was always why it was called intellectual property. Anyway I update him on the various other goings on and this is all very useful. We wonder what will be in the Gowers Report (the UK Treasury Report on IP) that comes out tomorrow.

10.15 Zoom down 7 floors to group room to see if Working Group C still on. Discover everyone leaving as attendance too low, so I speak to Annamie Neyts and give her my note on Russia. Go back upstairs to more paperwork and finalising arrangements regarding my dinner on Patents with Jaques Borgeois that I am having tomorrow. Industry attendance very good, no other MEPs but then it was rather short notice. Given that most of the attendees are patent attorneys, we may in any event be rather too specialist. The venue has had to change so Joe has to notify everyone again.

12.30 LDEPP with David Howarth. I am in the chair as Emma is away (we rotate the chair every 6 months but the whip is always the stand-in). We have a good exchange with David over the eternal problem of how to integrate better between London and Brussels. David is of the view that ‘Europe’ is not a separate policy item, it is something that runs through all or almost all policy. We agree but fear it is the forgotten bit. Just like we have environmental relevance and links explained in all our policy, we could do with the same for the European aspects.

13.15 David leaves and we continue with the ordinary business. We review the Strasbourg agenda and agree on who will cover the blanks. Bill Newton-Dunn says he is very pleased with the new whip routines (as our previous whip he probably knows how much effort it takes). We agree we will need proxies. I get back to the office by 2ish but the afternoon disappears in into papers and phone.

17.00 Down 7 floors to Group meeting. Russia is on the agenda so I say my bit about the Part lV of their new civil code, pointing out that in the Russia-EU summit papers it says we want to be closer on IP that just as the WTO provides, but in the new civil code there are backward moves and it does not fulfil TRIPS, let alone go further. I scribble a proposed amendment for the resolution and it is agreed that the negotiators will try and get it in to the final cross-party resolution. I retreat temporarily to my office to phone home only to receive a rallying call from Andrew Duff’s assistant. I and other Lib Dems dutifully troop into Group, including Chris who appears to have been plucked from the shower in the gym. Then everyone in Group agrees with Andrew anyway so the rapid response force not really needed, but impressive none the less.

19.00 Take a car to Ambassador’s residence for CBI reception. Share the car with Liz and Charles Tannock and we discuss Emma’s report on Kashmir. The storm clouds gather! Mandelson speaks at the reception then Liz and I go to dinner.