19/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - Commission withdraws its appeal to the Court of Justice on ACTA. On Wednesday 19 December, the S&D group at the European Parliament welcomed the European executive's withdrawal of its appeal before the Court of Justice of the EU over the draft international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which was rejected by the Parliament in July of this year (see EUROPE 10648). With its appeal, the Commission was hoping for legal support over the controversial articles of the treaty, which may be damaging to the fundamental rights of the EU citizens. “It is about time that the Commission realised that ACTA was wrong. It was the best decision, because the European Parliament's vote last July had already made it a dead end for ACTA”, said the head of the S&D group, Hannes Swoboda of Austria. (EH/transl.fl)