As a german i am quite sure they will ratify software patents. The very sad part is the people deciding this have absolutely no understanding what they are doing and that they open the box of pandora. There is currently almost no invest money in european startups, and if everyone of these startups is liable for bogus software patents they will have absolutely no chance on getting big.
I don't like software patents but I have a hard time buying that it will limit investment further. It hasn't significantly done so in the US where software patents have long existed. I imagine it may spur investment because investors see software patents as protecting their investments in startups from both other startups and established companies. Edited to correct a typo kindly pointed out by a comment below.
Those patents will affect open source which no other industry has adopted to the extent software has. Even hardware is being open sourced now as a cultural influence.
Can you point me to any other industry where small teams or individuals can build and learn the same cutting edge tech used at big companies without a big fat license and accepting legal jargon? Is lack of that a bad thing for the society as a whole? No idea is in isolation so it doesn't make sense to give exclusive rights to a single entity.
Do you wanna fight Oracle? Of course, you do just like Google.
Current situation won't give you the real picture of the impact because many companies choose not to patent software when they can.
Investors can also see lack of patents as reduced barrier to entering the market and diversify more.