THE "EPO rumour mill," told us a source, is abuzz with information or speculations about what's about to happen in June when the Administrative Council meets again and has an opportunity to sack Battistelli. Battistelli should be retired by now, not receiving an astronomical salary (the same is true for Mr Minnoye, who had a senior moment on TV when he forgot that law needs to be obeyed).

“The normal EPO Vice-President contract is for 5 years so his appointment will expire in March/April 2017.”
      --AnonymousNow that Battistelli is rumoured to be 'buying' votes so as to ensure he does not get sacked (in spite of failing to fulfill any of the requests from the Administrative Council) we have some new informal information, or rather, unverified rumours.

"Latest news from the EPO rumour mill," our source told us, involves both Battistelli and his right-hand man Željko Topić, who faces serious issues in his home country.

"Topić," we are told, "was appointed as VP 4 of the EPO in March 2012 and took up his duties in Munich in April 2012. The normal EPO Vice-President contract is for 5 years so his appointment will expire in March/April 2017.

"Battistelli is due to remain as EPO President until June 2018 and it now seems that he wants to keep Topić for another year.

“There are 38 member states in total, and a three-quarters majority would be needed to remove the President.”
      --Anonymous"The latest news from the EPO rumour mill is that Battistelli is planning to propose an extension of Topić's appointment to the Administrative Council during the upcoming meeting on the 29th and 30th of June. According to reliable sources there is a lot of opposition to the proposed extension among many delegations so it will interesting to see if this will lead to another stand-off between Battistelli and the Council."

Would it not be outrageous if Topić, who faces many criminal charges, received an endorsement from heads of national offices (Administrative Council)? That would serve to discredit, by extension/association, a lot of this whole system (the Organisation), demonstrating that the EPO is unhinged and incapable of self-regulation.

"Battistelli has now lost majority support in the Administrative Council," our source added, "but according to inside sources there is still a block of around 12 countries which continue support him. There are 38 member states in total, and a three-quarters majority would be needed to remove the President. As long as he still has residual support from 12 countries it could be difficult for the Council to dismiss him."

Since all countries, both large and small, have an equal voice, sending money their way to secure their support for Battistelli should not be too hard. We explained this last week.

“As long as he still has residual support from 12 countries it could be difficult for the Council to dismiss him.”
      --Anonymous"However," our source concluded, "it's not easy to make reliable predictions about this because according to EPO voting rules abstentions do not count as votes. So if some delegations decided to abstain, this would reduce the majority required for a decision. The "three-quarters majority" is based on the actual number of votes cast not including abstentions."

For those wishing to contact their national delegates, here are the contact details. They deserve to have access to information that Battistelli and his goons suppress, either by threats to bloggers and to representatives, outright censorship (of bloggers and representatives' sites/E-mail), self censorship by mass surveillance (with BlueCoat) and so on. ⬆