Bonum Certa Men Certa

The General Consultative Committee of the EPO Exposes a Disaster and a Lack of Genuine Dialogue

Video download link | md5sum 0fb9bcc5d05ac5516517f1c160154f6e GCC Report as Dialogue Breaks Down Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The General Consultative Committee (GCC) at the EPO deals with unlawful proposals from António Campinos (he's happy to violate laws, constitutions, protocols, conventions, just like Benoît Battistelli did) and once again the abuses by managers is covered up; it's as if the Office is run by unaccountable gangsters who arrogantly curse at everyone whilst insisting they're the nicest people ever

THE video above deals with this short report [PDF] about a recent meeting at the EPO, whose agenda is better illuminated in several [PDF] key [PDF] opinion documents [PDF] from staff representatives. They show to their constituents that the Office misuses politics to justify cracking down on staff or plundering the staff.



"They show to their constituents that the Office misuses politics to justify cracking down on staff or plundering the staff."One of these opinion documents is very long, but the summary speaks of the Unitary Patent, basically a misguided longtime effort to introduce a kangaroo court (UPC) to authorise European software patents etc. under the guise of "unity" or "unification".

Here is the letter sent to staff:

Report on the GCC meeting of 26 April 2022: The re-election package

Dear colleagues,

As already explained in an earlier publication, the GCC meeting of 26 April was the worst ever experienced under Mr Campinos’ leadership. The CSC members of the GCC requested that the consultation on the agenda items be repeated; and that the official recording of the discussions in the meeting be made available so that staff become aware of how the President chaired this statutory meeting.

On 29 April, the President informed the CSC members that “there are no reasons to repeat the GCC meeting” and he did not address the question of the recording. The reasoned opinions on the documents on the agenda are thus given under protest:
  • Opinion on the document on Professional Mobility (GCC/DOC 06/2022)


  • Opinion on the directive on an in-house supervisory committee for SSP investment management and administration (GCC/DOC 07/2022)


  • Opinion on the decision (GCC/DOC 08/2022) of the President on the entry into force of Circular No. 419 (New Ways of Working).


Undoubtedly, the first document (Professional Mobility) is the one that would most profoundly change the way official EPO duties are assigned to employees, be they EPO staff or national civil servants. In best Battistelli tradition, Mr Campinos has prepared a “package” to be submitted to the Budget and Finance Committee in May 2022 and to the Administrative Council for approval in June 2022 (see CA/32/22 and CA/32/22 Add.1), with various measures more or less closely related to mobility. His re-election will be discussed in the same meeting.

You can read the full report, including some salient points in the “mobility package” here.


Notice the arrogance of Campinos, having cursed at the staff and then rejected transparency (in order to cover up what he had done). He "informed the CSC members that “there are no reasons to repeat the GCC meeting” and he did not address the question of the recording." My personal opinion is that, for their own protection, staff should bring recording devices of their own. They might even wish to disclosure that in advance, citing this example where the Office maintains a monopoly on the recordings -- just like many Police Departments (PDs) in the United States -- so that those recordings can only ever be used as a weapon against the vulnerable/unarmed citizens.

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