Death knell for ACTA

The day ACTA bit the dust to the overwhelming support of MEPs. After five committee votes against ACTA, an international agreement to fight counterfeit trade, the writing was on the wall. The devil is in the lack of detail. A vague text is dangerous, and we cannot guarantee that civil liberties would be robustly protected by the Treaty provisions. ACTA stoked public controversy from the outset, with street protests against a perceived threat to the internet freedoms of individuals and fears of Big Brother oversight and prosecutions. The EU argued it’s an agreement for our days, protecting the intellectual rights of creators, designers and inventors and giving Europe an edge over global competitors. Counterfeit medicines and counterfeit spare parts for airplanes are not only a threat to the health and life of Europeans, they're also a threat to the competitiveness of the European economy. And to combat those things we need international cooperation. The European Commission fought in vain to give the European Court of Justice time to reach a ruling on whether ACTA breaches EU law. ACTA is not an attack on our liberties, it is a defence of our livelihoods. What is legal today in the European Union, will remain legal once ACTA is ratified. But MEPs didn’t want to wait. It was a victory that had one civil society opponent close to tears. It means that the EU policy makers cannot ignore the voice of citizens any longer. It means that interconnected citizens, through this global public sphere that is the internet, can literally change the world. When and how that will be is unclear, but already opponents are preparing themselves for future battles. ACTA has suffered a major setback, but they understand it will be back, with a new face.

EuroparlTV video ID: 8115a07d-0ca3-4918-957c-a084012bd739