European Parliament Again Urges More ACTA Transparency
September 9, 2010
| 10:38 AM
A majority of the members of the European Parliament have signed a declaration calling on the European Commission to make public all the documents related to the ongoing negotiations over an anti-counterfeiting and piracy trade agreement.
The parliament and public interest groups have been vocal in urging greater transparency in the talks over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. As of Thursday, a majority of European Parliament members had signed on to the declaration. A declaration supported by more than half of the total members of Parliament is viewed as the body's official position, according to a Parliament news release.
"The declaration argues that the agreement should not impose harmonization of [European Union] copyright, patent or trademark law nor weaken fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and the right to privacy," the release said.
The European Parliament passed a resolution in March urging greater transparency in the ACTA negotiations and opposing proposals that could lead to the loss of Internet access for serial intellectual property infringers.
ACTA negotiators did release a draft in April but did not make another one public after the most recent round of talks last month in Washington. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has said while it supports a transparent process, it must keep some details of the proposed agreement private in order to allow the negotiating parties to engage in a frank exchange of views.
ACTA seeks greater international cooperation in combating counterfeiting and piracy of intellectual property. The next round of talks is scheduled to start later this month in Tokyo, according to the parliament.
Some critics argue that the draft agreement aims to export U.S. IP rules without some of the protections for users and innovators included in U.S. law.
"ACTA would hurt the economy in countries which don't have a balanced intellectual property rights system in place," Erika Mann a former European Parliament member who now works as a vice president in the Brussels office of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, said in a statement. "A future Google would have a hard time starting up in a country without a balanced copyright system."
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