Although many people do not know it, the European Commission can and frequently does withdraw regulatory proposals it has already published. It should withdraw its controversial, unbalanced proposal on standard-essential patents (SEPs) next.
According to the European Parliament, the Commission withdrew 133 legislative proposals brought forward under the ordinary legislative procedure between 2005 and 2020. That’s almost 10% of the total!
There are three main reasons the Commission might withdraw a proposal:
1. The proposal might be outdated.
2. There might be lack of political agreement.
3. Amendments by the Parliament or Council might cause significant distortions from the Commission’s original intent. This is because circumstances can change, legal or technical issues can be discovered, the Commission’s political priorities can change, or an impact assessment may be determined to have been flawed, leading to a misguided basis for legislation. Read more