24 October 2007

By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch

"The European Union has pledged not to include any intellectual property provisions that would curb access to medicines in a series of free trade agreements it is negotiating with least-developed countries.(...) Greek Conservative Georgios Papastamkos claimed the Parliament had “chalked up a political victory” by asserting its power on an issue of trade, a policy area in which it has far less power than the Commission or EU governments. This sentiment was echoed by German Social Democrat Erika Mann. “This is a historic victory and extraordinary step forward for the European Parliament,” she said. “For the first time, our assembly has been able to obtain tangible results from the Council of Ministers in a domain considered by the member states as their private hunting grounds.”"