Context: In the summer, the European Commission (EC) finalized the withdrawal of the proposed EU regulation on standard-essential patents (SEPs) (July 31, 2025 ip fray article). The European Parliament (EP) had overwhelmingly supported the bill, but it was going nowhere in the EU Council. Still, some Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were disgruntled enough to take the initiative to call for interinstitutional litigation: they wanted the EP to sue the EC over this decision. A majority of the members of the EP’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) voted in favor of such a lawsuit.
What’s new: Today the EP held a plenary vote. 334 MEPs voted in favor, 294 against, and 11 abstained. That means the EP v. EC lawsuit was supported by 53% of the votes cast (subtracting abstentions), or 46% of all MEPs.
Direct impact:
- Practically, this is not going to make a difference anytime soon. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will take its time to decide. And even if the EC lost, the proposal would still not be ready for adoption by the Council.
- The EC is not going to be impressed by the narrow outcome, and even less so when looking at who voted in favor. For example, the largest and most powerful political group in the EP, the European People’s Party (EPP), voted overwhelmingly against litigation (119-30 with 5 abstentions).
Wider ramifications: Those supporting interinstitutional litigation have spent an enormous amount of political capital and may have been guided by frustration more so than by rational considerations. Was it worth it? Hardly. This particular bill has become more controversial than ever, and the divisive and accusatory attitude of those supporting litigation against the EC will also impact other political processes.
The EP’s (and the EPP’s) rapporteur on the proposed regulation, Marion Walsmann MEP (a former member of the pseudo-parliament of the German “Democratic” Republic), failed to convince many of the other members of her group to support the idea of suing the EC. Even in her own national delegation there was significant resistance, but with only about 20% of the votes cast by EPP MEPs supporting the proposal to take the EC to court, it’s clear that she has lost most of her influence.
For the most part, it was a left-Green-libertarian majority: 112-6 votes from the center-left Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group, 64-10 from the libertarian (though also somewhat left-leaning) Renew group, 54-0 from the pro-windmill Greens/EFA (European Free Aliance), and 37-1 from The Left (the most leftist group in the EP).
The somewhat EU-skeptical European Conservatives & Reformers (ECR) group was largely against the proposal, but 22 of its MEPs also supported litigation.
The Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group, whose members include the MEPs of the party leading the polls in the largest EU member state (Alternative for Germany), completely opposed the proposal to litigate.
This picture is distinct from the 454-83 majority in favor of the proposed EU SEP Regulation (February 28, 2024 ip fray article).