Brussels, 27/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - The parliamentary rapporteur on ACTA, David Martin, has called for the highly controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement to be rejected and sent back to the negotiating table.
As planned, David Martin (S&D, UK) calls in his recommendation presented on 25 April to the European Parliament's international trade committee for the ACTA agreement to be rejected due to its lack of clarity regarding citizens' fundamental rights. Martin acknowledges, however, that an alternative way to protect Europe's intellectual property is needed and could perhaps be found by renegotiating the agreement.
ACTA's shortcomings - which include failing to define “commercial scale” clearly enough and implicitly requiring internet service providers to act as “internet police” - mean that in practice it could have the unintended consequence of undermining civil liberties, said David Martin speaking on Wednesday. He proposed that the European Parliament should therefore reject the agreement.
The four main political forces have confirmed their position. Only the EPP gives the go-ahead to ACTA, as long as the Commission and the member states provide legal clarity on two controversial points - the definition of commercial scale for intellectual property right violations, and the role of internet service providers in the context of digital counterfeiting. Socialists, Greens and Liberals are seeking immediate rejection. On the ALDE side, Niccolò Rinaldi of Italy defends the negotiation of multilateral agreements on protection of intellectual property rights based on a product-specific sectoral approach (traditional goods, medicines, digital products). Speaking for the Greens/EFA, Amelia Andersdotter of Sweden backed David Martin's idea of renegotiating the agreement.
In order to give more time to all committees consulted in the Parliament to discuss and give their opinion, the international trade committee has decided to put off its vote until June. (EH/transl.jl)