Bonum Certa Men Certa

St. Germain’s “Système Lamy” and Its EPO Clone - Part 1: Rubber-stamp Committees and Secret Meetings

Lamy SIDRU voting

Summary: A look at the parallels between the notorious governance style of Emmanuel Lamy (above) and that of Benoît Battistelli at the EPO

A recent Techrights posting drew attention to the reputed influence of the “Système Lamy” in St. Germain-en Laye on the “Système Battistelli” at the EPO and posed the question whether the political culture of Battistelli’s hometown in France had contaminated the governance of the EPO.



Further research on this topic has confirmed the existence of striking similarities between the management style of the ENArque Battistelli at the EPO and the functioning of the municipal “political machine” operated in St. Germain-en-Laye for decades by his fellow ENArque and political mentor, the late Emmanuel Lamy.

Indeed the similarities are so pronounced that one could almost speak of a clone of the “Système Lamy” at the EPO.

The operational methods of both “systems” include a number of key characterising features such as:

We propose to look at the above operational methods in more detail and give some specific examples to let readers form their own opinion.

Reducing oversight bodies to “rubber-stamp committees”



In an interview given to the local press during the 2014 municipal election campaign, Anne Gommier of the conservative opposition group Agir pour Saint-Germain expressed a general dissatisfaction with Lamy’s style of governance in St. Germain-en-Laye.

"Indeed the similarities are so pronounced that one could almost speak of a clone of the “Système Lamy” at the EPO."Amongst other things she spoke of an unacceptable “disconnect” with the local populace as well as problems with a lack of transparency and consultation. She also deplored the way in which the municipal council had been degraded to a rubber-stamp committee: “Le conseil municipal est une chambre d’enregistrement”.

See the article (in French) "Municipales : une dissidente en lice à Saint-Germain-en-Laye".

It should be noted here that Gommier served as a Deputy Mayor under Lamy from 2008 to 2014 and was speaking from first-hand experience of his modus operandi.

"In an interview given to the local press during the 2014 municipal election campaign, Anne Gommier of the conservative opposition group Agir pour Saint-Germain expressed a general dissatisfaction with Lamy’s style of governance in St. Germain-en-Laye."Gommier’s criticisms were echoed by another conservative dissident, Yves Maillard, who also ran as a candidate in the 2014 municipal elections and expressed similar views in the local press:

"The purpose of my action and my project is to strengthen local democracy, he says. What frustrates me in our operations is that the mayor [i.e. Lamy] is capable of acting like a patriarch at the head of a family business. He listens to all sides but the decision will be made by a small committee and the group as a whole is presented with a fait accompli. There's not going to be any debate. For me, this is not democracy. During the current mandate I have not seen a single decision that has been the result of a debate. The council is a rubber-stamp committee."

See the article (in French) "Municipales. Yves Maillard veut raviver la démocratie locale".

"It should be noted here that Gommier served as a Deputy Mayor under Lamy from 2008 to 2014 and was speaking from first-hand experience of his modus operandi."Observers of the EPO during the Battistelli era should have no difficulty in recognising the parallels, in particular the way in which Battistelli successfully reduced the EPO’s various statutory bodies including its governing body, the Administrative Council, to mere “rubber-stamp committees”.

With regard to Battistelli’s control of the Administrative Council it should be noted that here he managed to surpass his mentor Lamy. During the period in question Battistelli was not the head of the EPO’s Administrative Council but was -- at least on paper -- subject to its authority. This was truly a most spectacular case of the “tail wagging the dog”!

The tail wagging the dog

Suppression of open debate and public scrutiny



"Observers of the EPO during the Battistelli era should have no difficulty in recognising the parallels, in particular the way in which Battistelli successfully reduced the EPO’s various statutory bodies including its governing body, the Administrative Council, to mere “rubber-stamp committees”."Both Lamy and Battistelli have shown themselves to be masters at suppressing open debate and public scrutiny.

A favourite tactic of Lamy was to declare meetings of public bodies such as the municipal council of St. Germain or the executive committee of SIDRU to be “closed sessions” due to the discussion of allegedly confidential matters.

Behind closed doors

For example, as the “toxic loan” problems at SIDRU were becoming the subject of public concern in 2013, Lamy managed to have an important public meeting of the intercommunal executive committee declared a “closed session” as reported in the local newspaper Courrier des Yvelines on 23 January 2013 [PDF]. This resulted in the exclusion of the press and members of the local opposition group who were in attendance as public observers.

"A favourite tactic of Lamy was to declare meetings of public bodies such as the municipal council of St. Germain or the executive committee of SIDRU to be “closed sessions” due to the discussion of allegedly confidential matters."See the blog post (in French) "Débat d'orientation budgétaire du SIDRU: la presse et l’opposition expulsées de la salle !"

A video of the opening of the meeting showing the vote in favour of a closed session on a proposal from Lamy can be seen here.

SIDRU, Committee meeting of 16 January 2013

Request for a closed meeting by union president Emmanuel Lamy (UMP).

Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines): Meeting of the Committee of the urban waste disposal union (SIDRU). This is a public meeting of which we usually put the most notable passages online, as the law allows. For the second time, the SIDRU executive requested that the meeting be held behind closed doors, so that the debates would not be filmed. The journalists and the municipal opposition of Saint-Germain were therefore expelled.

"For example, as the “toxic loan” problems at SIDRU were becoming the subject of public concern in 2013, Lamy managed to have an important public meeting of the intercommunal executive committee declared a “closed session”..."In a posting dated 13 August 2013 the opposition group Saint-Germain Autrement criticised Lamy’s attempts to silence its members on the municipal council because of their persistent criticism of his management of SIDRU and its “toxic loans”.

See the blog post (in French) "Débat sur le SIDRU : quand le maire de Saint-Germain-en-Laye veut faire taire l'opposition de gauche".

Observers of the EPO during the Battistelli era will be familiar with the deployment of such tactics, in particular Battistelli’s frequent use of “confidential sessions” of the Administrative Council to pursue dubious agendas and keep matters of legitimate public interest hidden away from any external scrutiny.

"Observers of the EPO during the Battistelli era will be familiar with the deployment of such tactics, in particular Battistelli’s frequent use of “confidential sessions” of the Administrative Council to pursue dubious agendas and keep matters of legitimate public interest hidden away from any external scrutiny."Like the mythical vampire Battistelli and his cronies at the EPO seem to have a strong aversion to sunlight. Perhaps this has something to do with its reputation as the “best of disinfectants” to borrow a well-worn phrase from Louis Brandeis.

Jut to give one prominent example, Battistelli’s reaction to the Enlarged Board of Appeal’s decision to hold a public hearing in the case of proceedings under Article 23 of the European Patent Convention (removal from office of a member of the Boards of Appeal) is well known and has been widely documented, e.g. [1, 2].

In most other contexts -- leaving aside totalitarian states such as North Korea -- any holder of public office who had been caught interfering with judicial independence in such an open and flagrant manner would most likely have been forced to face the consequences.

"In most other contexts -- leaving aside totalitarian states such as North Korea -- any holder of public office who had been caught interfering with judicial independence in such an open and flagrant manner would most likely have been forced to face the consequences."In Battistelli’s case he was never called to account. Perhaps this was because he had been so successful in reducing his oversight body to a mere “rubber-stamp committee”?

In Part 2 we will examine some further aspects of “Système Lamy” and its EPO clone.

Rubber Stamp

Recent Techrights' Posts

XBox is Rapidly Turned Into a Slopfarm by Microsoft
Slop isn't about efficiency and saving money
Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
Microsoft's Halloween Documents and systemd, Wayland, Etc.
Maybe one day Wayland will be widespread. Or maybe not.
Changing One's Name Won't Change One's Past
People who have earned a bad reputation are not magically "entitled" to reset
People Who Assault Women Are Not Victims of "Distress"
It seems like an American tradition. In a country with almost 50 presidents, not even one was a female.
Adoption of Gemini Protocol Still Growing
Gemini Protocol is being obscured by the media - it doesn't help that Google 'hijacked' the word "Gemini" - but people still manage to find out about it, download a client, and use it
 
There's Still Hope for the World Wide Web
Let's hope that the trajectory of the Web won't be leading us to over-reliance on Google, nor will it reward worthless slopfarms
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 14, 2025
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Gemini "Style Sheets" and Switching From Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg
Links for the day
Coming Soon: Another OSI Scandal, This One Implicating Molly de Blanc
OSI has been fairly quiet lately
Outreachy & Debian pregnancy cluster, Meike Reichle evidence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Again, "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
Microsoft Lunduke is not trying to "protect" Linux
One of the Most Hilarious Things About the Microsoft SLAPPs
It's so ridiculous
Financial Support for the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project
The FSF has extended until Friday its fund-raising campaign
Illegally Hiding (or Demanding Secrecy Around) Illegal Requests or Attempts at Extortion
unlawful communications like threats
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: BOFH Archive, Updating Old Palm PDAS, and Nginx vs Slop Bots
Links for the day
Ubuntu is Becoming GAFAM-Like
What does that say about Canonical and Ubuntu?
Slopfarms Which Take Real Articles About GNU/Linux and Turn Them Into Copycats Which Are False
Even before the LLM hype those were quite common
The Firm That Picks on Techrights is Accustomed to Working With Criminals
Techrights never did anything illegal. So why is it being picked on by people who work with criminals?
Microsoft Said the Mass Layoffs Were for "Investment" in "AI", But It's Also Laying Off the "AI" and "Copilot" Staff
Months ago we showed many so-called "AI" people were getting the boot and this time it's the same
DryDeadFish is Dead, Long Live DryDeadFish
We kept checking, hoping it can recover from some temporary technical issue
For Quite Some Time Already Microsoft Attracts Crackpots, Scams, and More
Occasionally we talk about the situation at IBM as there are many parallels
Links 14/07/2025: Chatbots Broken Again, McHire LLM Shows Limits of the Hype
Links for the day
Slashdot Media Turned Linux Journal Into a Slopfarm and Now Slashdot Actively Promotes Anti-Linux Slopfarms
Yes, "no-nonsense" apparently means actual nonsense
Links 14/07/2025: Arresting Photographers, Threats to Revoke US Citizenship Over Criticism
Links for the day
More EPO Leaks on the Way
We hope that Mr. Rowan will actually try to refute what we say and show, not merely point the finger at the messengers
Decommodification is a Corporate Strategy Against Communities
systemd is led by Microsoft and hosted by Microsoft
copyleft.org 'Hijacked' by the People Who Attack the Person Who Created Copyleft
So far there's nothing "tasteless" in copyleft.org, but that can change at any time in the future
Asking People to Take Down Articles and Videos Only Makes These More Popular and "Viral"
If you do something bad, one of the worst things you can possibly do it try to silence those who speak about it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 13, 2025
Two-Thirds Towards FSF Goal, Richard Stallman to Give Talks in Europe
There are 67 left before reaching the target
Brett Wilson LLP "Takes it Personal" (Character Assassination, Not Professionalism). Everybody Can See That.
On behalf of violent men
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: Politicised Tech and "Leaving GitHub"
Links for the day
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025