Friday

29th Mar 2024

EU trade secrets bill prompts concern

  • The directive aims to protect European companies' new patents and technologies (Photo: Argonne National Laboratory)

MEPs are trying to walk a fine line between business interests and civil liberties in a new bill on trade secrets.

The directive is to unify member states’ legislation on how to protect business from illegal access and disclosure of secret information, for instance, on upcoming patents or innovative technologies.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The French centre-right MEP steering the law through the European Parliament, Constance Le Grip, said in a debate on Monday (23 March) it’ll have to strike “a balance between the need to protect secrets and the need for knowledge and information to circulate".

She noted that the directive "doesn’t go against civil liberties”.

But Green MEP Julia Reda said the European Commission’s original draft "is missing a clear definition of public interest".

She cited issues such as the health and environmental implications of novel products which could be considered as trade secrets under the proposed legislation, preventing whistleblowers, NGOs, and media from publishing information of public interest.

She was joined by Portuguese liberal MEP Antonio Marinho e Pinto who called for the bill to "safeguard the importance of journalism".

A parliament official noted that “the business lobby is very active and some MEPs are very open to their arguments”.

The debate echoes events in France last January, when the economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, had to withdraw an amendment on trade secrets from a bill on liberalising the economy after protests by civil liberties groups and journalists’ unions.

MEPs in the legal affairs committee also expressed concerns the EU law would prevent highly qualified workers going from one company to another when they have knowledge or experience that could be defined as a trade secret.

Le Grip has proposed extending the time during which a company can sue a person if they are considered to have disclosed secrets to up to three years.

But Germany’s Reda and Italian centre-left MEP Sergio Cofferati said that a three-year period would hinder workers’ mobility.

"If we don't protect these kinds of professionals, we will be preventing them from using their ability to increase the competitiveness of the labour market," Cofferati said.

The legal affairs committee is to adopt its final amendments in May.

But whatever compromise text is finally adopted, there will be wiggle room for member states on details of implementation.

Amid the risk that some capitals could use the bill to justify more restrictive legislation at home, Le Grip said: "We have to safeguard the safeguards”.

For her part, Reda added that the EU-US free trade treaty, also known as TTIP, could end up having a retroactive impact on the secrets bill.

Trade secrets are part of the intellectual property chapter of TTIP. But the EU law will be the first of its kind in Europe, so TTIP negotiators won’t be able to tackle the issues until the directive is in place.

EU trade law could criminalise whistleblowers

A new directive passed by the European Parliament Thursday to protect European companies from corporate espionage could lead to preventing information on business wrongdoings, critics argue.

Opinion

EU trade bill threatens media freedom

MEPs are voting on legislation to protect trade secrets, in a bill which threatens to impede investigative journalists and whistleblowers.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us