[ffii] EU Council may pass ACTA silently during parliamentary recess

Thu Apr 2 12:32:31 CEST 2009

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Hoe is dit (het aannemen van dit soort regels) geregeld in de EU-grondwet?
Vroeger ging dit via de WIPO en hoorde niemand er van :(
Nu laat het EU-parlement zich buitenspel zetten?

Groet / Cees

------------------------- Oorspronkelijk bericht -------------------------
Onderwerp: [ffii] EU Council may pass ACTA silently during parliamentary
recess
Van:       "Ante" <ante at ffii.org>
Datum:     Do, 2 april, 2009 10:40
Aan:       news at ffii.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

PRESS RELEASE -- [ Europe / Economy / Innovation ]

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   EU Council may pass ACTA silently during parliamentary recess
=======================================================================

Brussels, 2 April 2009 - The EU Council leaves the possibility open to pass
the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) silently during parliamentary
vacation. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) opposes
such secret legislation.

Member of the European Parliament Jens Holm asked the EU Council whether the
final draft of ACTA will be published prior to political agreement in the
Council. He also asked whether parliaments will have enough time to
scrutinise
ACTA, and whether the Council can ensure that ACTA is not quietly passed
during parliamentary recess. The Council declined to answer these questions.

The Council writes in its answer: "Since the stage of the final determination
of the legal basis has not yet been reached, it is not possible for
Council to
reply in detail to the procedural questions raised by the Honourable Member."

FFII analyst Ante Wessels comments: "The Council can publish texts regardless
of the legal basis. No legal basis obliges the Council to pass ACTA silently
during parliamentary recess. The Honourable Member received a bogus answer."

Behind closed doors, the EU, U.S., Japan and other governments are
negotiating
ACTA. No drafts are published. ACTA will contain a new international
benchmark
for legal frameworks on the enforcement of copyrights, trade mark rights,
patents and other so called intellectual property rights. Public interest
organisations are concerned ACTA may limit access to medicines, limit access
to the internet, give patent trolls free reign and harm the most innovative
sectors of the economy.

In the U.S., hundreds of advisors, many of them corporate lobbyists, are
considered "cleared advisors." They have access to the ACTA documents.

Ante Wessels comments: "Apparently there is room to give ACTA documents to
corporate lobbyists. Then the non-discrimination principle obliges to give
the
general public access as well. It is a sick and illegal situation that
lobbyists receive texts Members of Parliament do not get."

In related news, Dutch customs authorities sent legitimate generic
antiretroviral medicines in transit from India to Nigeria back to India. The
shipmentâ€™s delay could lead to HIV-positive Nigerian patients missing
"critical treatment", health advocates said in March of this year.

Ante Wessels adds: "While the FFII's focus is on software and innovation,
this
example clearly shows where disproportional anti-piracy measures can lead to.
They not only hurt companies and innovation, they can actually kill people."

The European Parliament adopted two resolutions asking for access to ACTA
documents. According to the FFII analysis both the European Parliament and
the
Member States of the EU can veto ACTA.

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Links
=======================================================================

* MEP Jens Holm Parliamentary question and answer:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=CRE&reference=20090312&secondRef=ANN-01&language=SV&detail=H-2009-0089&query=QUESTION
or: http://tinyurl.com/c2gqke

* FFII analysis:
http://action.ffii.org/acta/Analysis

* U.S. "cleared advisors":
http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/03/13/who-are-cleared-advisors/

* Alarm Escalates Over Delayed Generic Drug Shipments As Action Sought
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/03/06/alarm-escalates-over-delayed-
generic-drug-shipments-as-action-sought/
or http://tinyurl.com/cbdsxe

* European Parliament resolution 18 December 2008
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2008/12/20/no-acta-deal-yet-as-eu-parliament-
seeks-narrower-scope-more-transparency/
or http://tinyurl.com/dzkwwr
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P6-
TA-2008-0634
or http://tinyurl.com/8eyjgm

* European Parliament resolution 11 March 2009
http://www.straight.com/article-206028/european-parliament-votes-greater-
acta-transparency
or http://tinyurl.com/b4uk2f
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-
TA-2009-0114+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN#BKMD-15
or http://tinyurl.com/ch6hj7

*Â Earlier PR: EU Council deliberately obstructs access to ACTA documents
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/EU_Council_deliberately_obstructs_access_to_ACTA_documents

* Permanent link to this press release:
http://press.ffii.org/EU_Council_may_pass_ACTA_silently_during_parliamentary_recess

=======================================================================
Contact
=======================================================================

Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
+32-2-414 84 03
+32-484-566109
bhenrion at ffii.org
(French/English)

Ante Wessels
+31-6-100-99-063
ante at ffii.org
(Dutch/English)

=======================================================================
About the FFII
=======================================================================

The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in over fifty countries,
dedicated to the development of information goods for the public
benefit, based on copyright, free competition, and open standards. More
than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted
the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning
exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.

_______________________________________________
FFII Press Releases.
(un)subscribe via https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact
media at ffii.org for more information.

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