Spain, currently holding the EU Presidency, will propose that patents may be published in English, French or German. Some elements would be allowed to be translated into all 11 EU languages. Agreement on the linguistic issue of the proposal might be possible, but Germany will likely continue to resist the creation of an EU court to handle patent disputes.
The Internal Market Council in its meeting in February had agreed to try to come to an agreement on the proposal for a Council Regulation on the Community patent by May. This was reiterated by the Barcelona European Council in March. In April the EP plenary has adopted the Legal Affairs Committee's report creating an EU wide patent, with a 5 language approach to EU patents (see EurActiv ).
Some other topics on the Council agenda are:
- Commission briefing on the monitoring of the effects of the introduction of the euro on consumers;
- Commission briefing on the follow-up to the Green Paper on EU consumer protection;
- A policy debate on a proposal for a Regulation concerning sales promotions in the internal market.