"Europe is currently prohibiting patents on computer programmes as such and requires for a patent to be granted that it has an industrial application. This gives its members an economic advantage, protects open source software all over the world and stimulates innovation made by small companies. However, powerful pressures are trying to make Europe change its wise position on software patents. freepatents.org thinks the new EU position on software patents is a threat to competition, small companies, innovation and open source software."

The freepatents mailing list is very active. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in following the software patent issues in Europe. The mailing list has more of a European slant than the web site--there is apparently a lot of legislative activity going on in Europe with respect to changing software patent requirements, activity and political discussion that simply doesn't seem to be going on anywhere else at the moment.