Euro Patent Office prez 'a disgrace to France'

President of the European Patent Office (EPO) Benoit Battistelli is a disgrace to his country, the French National Assembly heard Wednesday. "La présence du Français Benoît Battistelli à la tête de l’Office nuit aujourd’hui gravement à l’image de notre pays," stated MP Philip Cordery in an address to the secretary of state for …

[Anonymous Coward]

Translation

> "La présence du Français Benoît Battistelli à la tête de l’Office nuit aujourd’hui gravement à l’image de notre pays"

"The presence of Frenchman Benoît Battistelli as the head of the Office gravely tarnishes today our country's image"

For those who don't speak French and would rather complain here than run it through one of the myriad online translation tools available.

[Snafu1]

Re: Translation

Thanks - a garbled auto-translation is always superseded by someone who knows the language & its nuances..

[ecofeco]

Re: Translation

Thanks AC. What Snafu1 said.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Translation

I would ask if there is a French equivalent for "accountability", but then someone would drag up our Veterans Administration, General Services Administration, Internal Revenue Service, et al.

Of course, those are all completely different and don't apply at all - but I'm not up to explaining exactly why right now.

[Youngone]

Re: Translation

That's not what it says at all. Don't pay any attention to AC, I also speak French (or at least I learned a bit during the third form).

> "La présence du Français Benoît Battistelli à la tête de l’Office nuit aujourd’hui gravement à l’image de notre pays"

Means,

" The presense of Benoît Battistelli's head in the night office today is a picture of the grave of our bread".

I'm sure that's correct.

[sad_loser]

Help

I can remember that the EPO is the biggest cesspool of technical and managerial incompetence this side of NHS digital. And that is impressive on its own.

What I can't remember whether this guy is heroically trying to drain the swamp, or is busy dropping his own Gallic flavoured brown trout into it.

[Anonymous Coward]

grab the popcorn

At some point the EPO is going to meet the brave new populism and it's going to be the end of Frankenstein, pretty when it goes down.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: grab the popcorn

Bureaucratic incompetence doesn't seem to be easy sell these days pretty much anywhere in the west. Give the EPO credit at least for not causing cholera in Haiti or contributing to a looming genocide in South Sudan. The century is young though.

[Yes Me]

Not unusual

Under the unusual make-up of the EPO, it has legal immunity from the laws of the countries in which it operates

That is absolutely standard for international treaty organisations, which by their nature should not be subject to national laws. Most of them, however, set a standard of 'not worse than the host state law' when it comes to health & safety, employee rights, etc. It doesn't sound as though the EPO is doing that.

On the other hand, Philip Cordery is a socialist so he would be expected to take the employees' side. He's also half-British (not that that counts for much in Europe these days) and represents non-resident citizens. In fact he represents some of the EPO employees directly, since his constituency is "les Français du Benelux".

[Mephistro]

Re: Not unusual

"Under the unusual make-up of the EPO, it has legal immunity from the laws of the countries in which it operates"

There's a lot to chew in this paragraph! I wonder how long till King Battisteli starts using slave workers.

[Steve 114]

Don't know

Anyone who's tried running an international organisation will know what a can of worms they have to handle. Often a very firm hand is required to do things differently. Maybe that's why the 'Members' don't act.

[Hstubbe]

typical french behaviour

I would say Battistelli is a typical frenchman: arrogant, does not listen to critique, believes he is superior to the rest of the world. France in a nutshell.

The french are a lost cause. After the terrorist attacks on Paris what did they do? Right, go to bed with that other terrorist group: Russia!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: typical french behaviour

for the honour of my French friends, I must correct your post

'Les Parisiennes' are a lost cause. After the terrorist attacks on Paris what did they do? Right, go to bed with that other terrorist group: Russia!

The rest of France hates the so called elite from Paris. One of my friends runs a cafe in the Gironde Between July 14th and 1st September he and some other businesses display a sign on the door saying that 'Residents of Ile-de-France not welcome'. They are fed up with people from Paris buying up local homes and only using them for 6 weeks a year. Sounds familiar eh?

[Dr_N]

Re: typical french behaviour

@Hstubbe

>The french are a lost cause. After the terrorist attacks on Paris what did they do?

Mourn the dead?

>Right, go to bed with that other terrorist group: Russia!

Oh you were looking to make a douche comment. My bad.

[Anonymous Coward]

not a dig at the EU but...

One of the things i don't like about the EU / any european treaty organisation.... is that nothing ever seems to make a difference. How long has this guy been reported on this website, yet hearings and reports go by with nothing changing.

Maybe there are good reasons for european unity in many places and things, but the lack of accountability by the various (and there are many) europe-wide organisations is the real problem.

I don't think this guy is doing this because he's French, i think he's doing it because he can.

[jimdandy]

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical...

It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

-Thomas Jefferson

Now if only the nation he helped create would wake up and smell the Jeffersonian. It can't really smell that bad after 219 years, can it?

[imanidiot]

My prediction:

Batistelli will hold on until his position finally becomes completely unsustainable but will suddenly have a change of heart and quit of "his own free will" before he can be fired. With a massive severance pay-out and a different cushy position lined up.