Brussels, 14/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has formally referred ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) to the Court of Justice of the EU to clarify the legality of the agreement, of which adoption by the European Parliament (EP) would seem to be uncertain.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht's spokesman John Clancy said on Friday 11 May the Commission had “submitted its request for an opinion on ACTA to the European Court of Justice”, as it had announced in February of this year. “The Court's opinion is vital to respond to the wide-ranging concerns voiced by people across Europe on whether ACTA harms our fundamental rights in any way. We now look forward to Europe's top court to independently clarifying the legality of this agreement”, Clancy says in a press release, calling on the European Parliament to await this Court opinion before deciding on the fate of the agreement.
The European Court of Justice is likely to take at least a year to deliver its opinion. After several months of debate in the EP, where it has been discussed in the international trade committee and also in the industry, legal affairs, civil liberties and development committees, rapporteur David Martin (S&D, UK) called on 25 April for ACTA to be rejected because of its lack of clarity on fundamental rights and for it to be renegotiated. Its deficiencies - including too vague a definition of the term “commercial scale” and the implicit call for internet service providers to act as an internet police - mean that, in practice, ACTA could have the unwelcome effect of weakening civil liberties, Martin pointed out. To allow the various committees consulted for their views more time, the international trade committee has decided to postpone its vote until June (see EUROPE 10604).
In a second opinion on ACTA, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) warned at the end of April of the threats the agreement posed to privacy (see EUROPE 10601).
Even within the Commission, the agreement has brought controversy. Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes, speaking in a personal capacity, recently suggested it would be rejected. “We are now likely to be in a world without ACTA”, she said at a conference in Berlin at the start of May.
ACTA, which was negotiated outside the WTO and behind closed doors by Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, the United States and the European Union, seeks to protect intellectual property from traditional counterfeiting (such as with clothing and medicines) and digital counterfeiting (illegal downloading) by setting harmonised international standards.
The EU is not the only ACTA stakeholder to distance itself from the agreement. In Mexico, the senate voted unanimously in September 2011 against signature of the agreement by its executive. Switzerland has, for the moment, ruled out signing ACTA as it awaits further information. (EH/transl.rt)