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European ACTA Pressure Intensifies: Transparency Demands, EP Resolution

2010-03-07 23:12
Europe has become the centre of a storm over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. nbsp; Late last week, the Government of Sweden announced that the European Union was now uniformally seeking ACTA transparency. nbsp; The announcement came just days after the Dutch leak that identified the specific countries opposed to a transparent approach. nbsp; The revelations appear to have had a significant impact as all European Union countries are now said to support release of the ACTA text. This week the issue hits the European Parliament that includes an ACTA debate on Tuesday, followed by a landmark resolution that will be on the table on Wednesday. nbsp; nbsp; At the moment, there are two competing resolutions. nbsp; One resolution promoted by an alliance of the Liberal and Green Party, includes the following: 1. nbsp; Expresses its utmost concern over the lack of a transparent process in the conduct of the ACTA negotiations, which contradicts the letter and the spirit of the TFEU; 2. nbsp; Is of the opinion that legitimate arguments for non-disclosure do not exist with regard to international negotiations on the enforcement of intellectual property rights or similar issues, which are legislative in character and have an impact on fundamental rights; maintains that the negotiating position of the EU or other negotiating parties is not circumscribed if information about the negotiations is available to the European Parliament and the general public; 3. nbsp; Regrets the calculated choice of the parties not to negotiate through well-established international bodies, such as the WIPO and WTO, which have established frameworks of public information and consultations; 4. nbsp; Calls on the Commission to grant Parliament access to all primary texts relating to ACTA, in particular the ACTA negotiation mandate by the Council, the minutes of ACTA negotiation meetings, the draft chapters of ACTA, and the comments of ACTA participants on the draft chapters; 5. nbsp; Acknowledges that, in addition to the clear legal obligation to inform Parliament, the ACTA documents should also be available to the general public in the EU and in the other countries participating in the negotiations; understands the wide public criticism of the secrecy of the ACTA negotiations as a clear signal of the political unsustainability of the negotiation procedure chosen; 6. nbsp; Calls on the Commission to engage proactively with ACTA negotiation partners to cancel any previous formal or informal internal agreements on the confidential nature of the conduct of the negotiations and to inform Parliament about its initiatives in this regard in due course; expects the Commission to make proposals prior to the next negotiation round in New Zealand in April 2010 and to demand that the issue of transparency is put on the agenda of that meeting; 7. nbsp; Reminds the Commission that if it does not provide Parliament with immediate and full information about the negotiations in accordance w...
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