The Gazette 1974

from the nine Member States were held in Brussels on 26-27 March 1974 and 4-5 June 1974.

May 1974 to consider the draft. It will be a number of years before the Convention will be in final form. 11.28. Two further meetings of the sub-group which is revising the English text of the draft Convention were held in Brussels. Considerable progress was made and further meetings will be held to complete the work. Draft Convention on Private International Law 11.29. The committee of experts on the harmonising of rules of private international law held plenary meet- ings in Brussels in November 1973 and in Copenhagen in April/May 1974. These meetings considered a ques- tionnaire received from the Council's Social Questions group concerning a draft Regulation relating to conflist of law rules governing labour relations within the Com- munity and its impact upon similar provisions con- tained in the draft private international law Convention on the law applicable to contractual and non-contrac- tual obligations. 11.30. A subcommittee on movable property held a meeting on 13-15 February 1974 to consider : (a) a questionnaire concerning conflict rules relating to contract and tort which had been circulated to member governments of the Hague Permanent Conference on Private International Law; and (b) The Commission draft Directive on the recognition of securities on movables without dispossession and on the retention of ownership upon the sale of movables. A report from the subcommittee was before the plenary meeting of the committee of experts in Copenhagen in April/May 1974. The legal profession and a number of interested commercial bodies have been consulted on the draft Directive. Draft Directive on Guarantees 11.31. A committee of experts drawn from the Mem- ber States of the Community is examining a draft Directive on the harmonisation of national laws relating to guarantees. The purpose of the draft Directive is to achieve rules in regard to contracts of guarantee which would apply throughout the whole Community in order to facilitate the movement of capital which is envisaged in Article 67 of the EEC Treaty. A meeting of the committee of experts was held from 12 to 14 June 1974. Draft Convention on the liability and protection of officials of the European Communities in criminal matters 11.32. A committee of experts consisting of delegates from the Member States is considering what machinery should be set up to deal with Community officials accused of certain offences in connection with their official duties. A group of experts from the original Member States began work on the matter in 1962. Their discussions were suspended for a long time because of divergences of opinion amongst them but work recom- menced in September 1970 and resulted in the prepara- tion of a draft convention in 1972. The draft Conven- tion provides for the extension of the domestic laws of the Member States relating to certain criminal offences to cover such offences committed by Community offi- cials in the course of their duties. The draft is being reconsidered following the accession of Ireland the UK and Denmark and meetings for this purpose of experts

Patents 11.33. At the invitation of the German Government a diplomatic conference was held in Munich from 10 September to 5 October 1973 to adopt a European system for granting patents. On 5 October 1973 the nine Member States of the Community and five other countries, viz. Greece, Liechtenstein, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, signed the International Convention on the European Patent. 11.34. The Convention provides for the obtaining of a European patent, which would have the same vali- dity and effect in designated contracting States as natio- nal patents, by means of a single application and one grant procedure. The Convention provides for a Euro- pean Patent Organisation comprising a European patent will be filed with the European Patent Office will be responsible for operating the European system for the grant of patents. Applications for a European patent will be field with the European Patent Office which will be established in Munich. 11.35. A draft Convention on the European Patent for the Common Market which was prepared early in 1973 was scheduled for consideration and adoption at a final conference to be held in Luxembourg from 6 to 28 May 1974. It was the intention that the draft Convention would be initialled at the end of the confer- ence and be signed for the Council in June 1974. How- ever, a request by the UK Government for the post- ponement of the conference was granted by COREPER in April 1974. The reason given by the UK Government for this request is that it requires time to undertake a thorough examination of matters relating to the Euro- pean Patent for the Common Market. Harmonisation of Penal Law—Economic Penal Law 11.36. In June 1961 the Council decided to study the problems posed in relation to the prevention and punishment of breaches of Community Regulations, Directives and Decisions, in particular whether the in- equality of penalties imposed in different Member States for breaches of Community provisions would tend to hinder the full implementation of these provisions throughout the Community. A draft Instrument on economic penal law in the Community prepared by a sub-group of experts was considered at a meeting of the plenary working group at Brussels on 6-7 March 1974. After a discussion on the terms and scope of the instru- ment the draft was referred back to the sub-group for further study. This work is currently in progress. Council of Ministers for Justice 11.37. The first meeting of the Council at which Member States were represented by the Ministers for Justice was held in Luxembourg on 3 June 1971. The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany pro- posed in February 1974 that a second Council of Ministers for Justice should be held in the second half of 1974 under the French presidency of the Council. An ad hoc working group comprising representatives of all the Member States was set up to prepare for the meeting. The working group met in Brussels on 11 March, 8 April and 6 May 1974 and further meetings will be held as necessary to complete the preparations for the Council meeting. 204