There will still be other forms of rapprochement to invent with the national parliaments, but at any rate one thing that is within our reach and that represents a turning point I believe we can all welcome, is the fact that the fifteen nations which make up this Union, which have already built a political reality that has a positive effect on the international balance of power, these fifteen nations have chosen to acquire the means to act jointly in cases where violence challenges our values.

As announced in the first 16c report, a Group of Experts has been set up, its remit being to advise the Commission on the preparation of future 16c Reports through the examination of important issues relating to biotechnological inventions.

The ESC recommends: - a further preventative analysis of protection systems complementary to the patent, to be described as "utility models" (UM), together with a more complete integration of available assessment data; special regard to be paid in this connection to weaknesses in the EU patent system, which is still seriously incomplete and disparate compared to its main competitors, the USA and Japan; - a guarantee, in the event of proposals for harmonization, not only of measures for the harmonization of substantive laws, but also of procedures and timescales for obtaining and enforcing UMs, together with the introduction of a cheap, quick and easy (especially for SMEs) assessment and enforcement method which excludes substances and pro ...[+++]cesses from eligibility for protection; - a guarantee of eligibility for UMs for innovations which satisfy the following requirements: a) "absolute novelty"; b) "possibility of application in the industrial field"; c) "inventive step" (Art. 56 of the Convention on the European Patent) or which have a practical industrial advantage over the previous state of the art; the scope of protection should emerge from a limited number of "claims" and the search for earlier "state of the art" should be optional in general, and compulsory for those wishing to enforce UM rights vis-à-vis a third party; - investigation into the feasibility of active assistance and advice in respect of national UM deposit and registration procedures being provided for firms - particularly SMEs - by a central Community or European agency; and investigation of the scope for application of computer digital language to the European patent system; - deferral of any measures for mutual recognition until substantive and interpretative harmonization has taken place; a feasibility study on creation of a Community UM covering the whole of Europe could be carried out, but only after a thorough examination to check that harmonization and mutual recognition measures ...