EU Council may pass ACTA silently during parliamentary recess

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In related news, Dutch customs authorities sent legitimate genericantiretroviral medicines in transit from India to Nigeria back to India. Theshipment’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, thisexample 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 ACTAdocuments. According to the FFII analysis both the European Parliament and theMember States of the EU can veto ACTA.

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