TODAY: European Parliament rejects ACTA

With 478 against 39 votes, the European Parliament rejected the Anti-Couterfeiting Trade Agreement today. This means that neither the European Union nor its individual member states can join the agreement. According to rapporteur David Martin, who recommended the European Parliament to reject ACTA, the treaty is too vague, open to misinterpretation and could therefore endanger citizens' liberties.

ACTA was submitted to the European Court of Justice to check its compliance with other EU treaties, but the European Parliament didn't wait for the court ruling. "If you're against ACTA, there is no point waiting for the ruling, because no matter what the court says, your position doesn't change." says Martin.

Not everybody is happy with the outcome of today's voting. Europe's innovative manufacturing and creative industries consider it a missed opportunity for the EU to protect its creative and innovation-based industries in the international market place. "ACTA is an important tool for promoting European jobs and intellectual property. Unfortunately the treaty got off on the wrong foot in the Parliament, and the real and significant merits of the treaty did not prevail,” says Anne Bergman-Tahon, Director of the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), a member of a coalition of over 130 organisations supporting ACTA.

The rejection of ACTA doesn't mean that there is no need to find alternative ways to protect intellectual property in the EU, Martin states. "There was no-one against the idea of the EU defending its intellectual property. The debate was whether ACTA was the right vehicle to do that and the clear conclusion of the vote is that it is not."

Source: European Parliament, ACTA Press Release