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European Parliament rejects ACTA
European Parliament rejects ACTA
Plenary Session External/international trade − 04-07-2012 - 13:09 The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), was rejected by the European Parliament on Wednesday, and hence cannot become law in the EU. This was the first time that Parliament exercised its Lisbon Treaty power to reject an international trade agreement. 478 MEPs voted against ACTA, 39 in favour, and 165 abstained. "I am very pleased that Parliament has followed my recommendation to reject ACTA" said rapporteur David Martin (S&D, UK), after the vote, reiterating his concerns that the treaty is too vague, open to misinterpretation and could therefore jeopardise citizens' liberties. However, he also stressed the need to find alternative ways to protect intellectual property in the EU, as the "raw material of the EU economy". The EPP's key ACTA advocate, Christofer Fjellner (EPP, SE), asked before the vote that Parliament should delay its final vote until the European Court of Justice has ruled on whether ACTA is compatible with the EU treaties. However, when a majority of MEPs rejected this request, a substantial minority responded by abstaining in the vote on Parliament's consent. While debating whether to give its consent to ACTA, Parliament experienced unprecedented direct lobbying by thousands of EU citizens who called on it to reject ACTA, in street demonstrations, e-mails to MEPs and calls to their offices. Parliament also received a petition, signed by 2.8 million citizens worldwide, urging it to reject the agreement. ACTA was negotiated by the EU and its member states, the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland to improve the enforcement of anti-counterfeiting law internationally. Wednesday's vote means that neither the EU nor its individual member states can join the agreement. |
Re: European Parliament rejects ACTA
As usual, lots going on in the background.
For one, the European Parliament has never been more than a rubber stamp to what ever it was presented. So this subtly changes the rules, for in this action, the European Parliament has used it's powers to cancel what was just a few months ago considered a shoo in vote. From now on, when bringing these treaties to the European Parliament, they will have to consider if it will ever again be a rubber stamp after finding it's authority. Lots of backroom planning and scheming to make ACTA pass or at worse, fend off a failure to pass by delaying the voting till later, didn't work. Most interesting in this is a hidden message to the planners that TPP may go the same route if carried out the same way ACTA was. Latest from the USTR was that suddenly to the dissatisfaction of the RIAA that some fair use rules would be added. However the process has been so full of double meanings, hidden agendas, and secret planning, that no one can accept it at face value. I honestly think the handwriting is on the wall that if they want new trade treaties they are going to have to do it different than hiding everything. It's good to hear ACTA is dead. Those that wasted years in the planning and scheming aren't going to just give up like that. Bits and pieces will be in future trade agreements attempts you can be sure. |
Re: European Parliament rejects ACTA
ACTA is rejected, so now, some EU politicians, sponsored by the industry, can come up with something else.
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Re: European Parliament Rejects ACTA
Message from Rick Falkvinge (Founder of The Pirate Party)
Send Flowers To The European Parliament For Rejecting ACTA! Activism: For months, we have pestered the Members of European Parliament with calls, mails, street protests, visits, and even faxes. Today, they killed ACTA decisively in a 478-against-39 vote. Now comes the next step: showing our love for doing the right thing. That part is easily overlooked, and almost always forgotten. The thing that makes it so efficient as citizens to contact Parliament that each of us only has to do something small in order to have an immense effect when many of us do that little something. It leads to effects on a large scale that just haven’t happened before – like every MEP office getting about 6,000 e-mails from all over the world, ordinary people telling their story. In the same vein, MEPs are used to just being yelled and yanked at from people who want favors. In rejecting ACTA, I think the MEPs who voted to reject it deserve a little show of our appreciation, so why not send them a bunch of flowers? The MEPs are quite ordinary people, too, and put yourself in their shoes – if a complete stranger should just break through the wall where you work and give you flowers, how would you react? That, just that, is the effect we can accomplish together. http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j.../fxck-ACTA.jpg This has never happened before. People, ordinary citizens, have never showered Parliament with flowers out of gratitude for standing up for us. Our representatives stood up for us and our rights today. That may be their job, but let’s encourage them to keep listening to the citizens by doing something that’s never happened before: actually showing them how much we appreciate it. Well Done Rick & The Pirate Party! http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...uetFlowets.jpg |
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