Bonum Certa Men Certa

The 168th Meeting of the EPO Administrative Council as a Test of the EPO's Oversight Mechanisms

Press the image below for more

EPO voting datasheet
Gallery of 'rogues' (2013) compared to 2021 as image | Complete HTML version of the same (the above image is not complete but merely a preview)



Summary: The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation is having its 168th meeting this Wednesday and we expect no expression of remorse for illegally crushing EPO staff (almost 7,000 individuals and their families) for nearly a decade; some of the culprits (10 of them to be precise) are still their nation's public face

As the EPO's Administrative Council gets ready for its 168th meeting this Wednesday - 13 October 2021 - it seems like a good idea to compare the current composition of the Council to that during the 136th meeting in June 2013 when Benoît Battistelli's "Strike Regulations" were adopted.



Since then many of the heads of delegation have changed. However, ten delegations are still headed by the same person as in June 2013:

- Czech Republic: Josef KRATOCHVÍL - Croatia: Ljiljana KUTEROVAC - Iceland: Borghildur ERLINGSDÓTTIR - Ireland: Gerard BARRETT - Malta: Godwin WARR - Monaco: Jean-Pierre SANTOS - San Marino: Silvia ROSSI - Turkey: Habip ASAN - Belgium; Jérôme DEBRULLE - Italy: Mauro MASI

"The current governance crisis at the EPO - triggered by the recent ILOAT judgments which struck down the "Strike Regulations" - shows how important it is to expose the workings of the Administrative Council to public scrutiny."Two of those delegations - namely Belgium and Italy - abstained from endorsing Battistelli's "Strike Regulations". The other eight delegations voted in favour.

There are two further delegations where the previous head of delegation has been replaced by the person who was their deputy in June 2013.

- Finland: Antti RIIVARI (successor to Rauni HAGMAN) - Estonia: Margus VIHER (successor to Matti PÄTS)

Both the Finnish and Estonian delegations voted in favour of Battistelli's "Strike Regulations".

The current governance crisis at the EPO - triggered by the recent ILOAT judgments which struck down the "Strike Regulations" - shows how important it is to expose the workings of the Administrative Council to public scrutiny.

"When exercising its legislative powers, the Council is supposed to respect the primary law of the EPC as well as international legal norms to which its contracting states subscribe."The Administrative Council is the governing body of the organisation EPO which has been entrusted with a limited set of legislative powers. In particular, it can make amendments to the EPO's internal employment law, codified in the "EPO Service Regulations".

When exercising its legislative powers, the Council is supposed to respect the primary law of the EPC as well as international legal norms to which its contracting states subscribe.

However, in contrast to an elected parliamentary legislative body, the EPO's Administrative Council is not subject to any meaningful form of public accountability if it should happen to abuse its legislative powers. It is only subject to very weak judicial oversight by the ILOAT.

As recently seen in the case of Battistelli's "Strike Regulations", it has taken eight years to strike down a flawed legislative measure which breached the fundamental rights of EPO staff.

It now remains to be seen how the Council in its current composition is going to react to the EPO's governance crisis at its upcoming 168th meeting.

"It now remains to be seen how the Council in its current composition is going to react to the EPO's governance crisis at its upcoming 168th meeting."It can be safely assumed that Team Campinos - which appears to be in complete denial about the implications of the recent ILOAT judgments - is doing its best to feed the Council delegates a sugar-coated narrative, in the hope that they will fail to realise the seriousness of the situation.

A lot will depend on whether the Council delegates are capable of doing their own homework and thinking for themselves, or whether they just prefer to "go with the flow" and swallow the snake-oil being spoon-fed to them by António Campinos and his cronies.

Recent Techrights' Posts

New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day