[Chapter-delegates] EU To Refer ACTA To EU's Top Court For Legal Clarification

[Veni Markovski]

More:

Statement 
<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/128&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en> 
by Commissioner Karel De Gucht on ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)

I am glad to say that this morning my fellow Commissioners have 
discussed and agreed in general with my proposal to refer the ACTA 
agreement to the European Court of Justice.

We are planning to ask Europe's highest court to assess whether ACTA is 
incompatible - in any way - with the EU's fundamental rights and 
freedoms, such as freedom of expression and information or data 
protection and the right to property in case of intellectual property.

As you are no doubt aware, within the EU institutional process, the 
European Commission has already passed ACTA to national governments for 
ratification. The Council has adopted ACTA unanimously in December and 
authorised Member States to sign it. The Commission has also passed on 
ACTA to the European Parliament for debate and a future vote.

That said, I believe the European Commission has a responsibility to 
provide our parliamentary representatives and the public at large with 
the most detailed and accurate information available. So, a referral 
will allow for Europe's top court to independently clarify the legality 
of this agreement.

In recent weeks, the ratification process of ACTA has triggered a 
Europe-wide debate on ACTA, the freedom of the internet and the 
importance of protecting Europe's Intellectual Property for our economies.

But let me be very clear: I share people's concern for these fundamental 
freedoms. I welcome that people have voiced their concerns so actively 
-- especially over the freedom of the internet. And I also understand 
that there is uncertainty on what ACTA will really mean for these key 
issues at the end of the day.

So I believe that putting ACTA before the European Court of Justice is a 
needed step. This debate must be based upon facts and not upon the 
misinformation or rumour that has dominated social media sites and blogs 
in recent weeks.

As I have explained before the European Parliament on several occasions, 
ACTA is an agreement that aims to raise global standards of enforcement 
of intellectual property rights. These very standards are already 
enshrined in European law. What counts for us is getting other countries 
to adopt them so that European companies can defend themselves against 
blatant rip-offs of their products and works when they do business 
around the world.

This means that ACTA will not change anything in the European Union, but 
will matter for the European Union.

Intellectual property is Europe's main raw material, but the problem is 
that we currently struggle to protect it outside the European Union. 
This hurts our companies, destroys jobs and harms our economies. This is 
where ACTA will change something for all of us - as it will help protect 
jobs that are currently lost because counterfeited and pirated goods 
worth 200 billion Euros are floating around on the world markets.

So let me be clear: ACTA will change nothing about how we use the 
internet and social websites today -- since it does not introduce any 
new rules. ACTA only helps to enforce what is already law today.

ACTA will not censor websites or shut them down; ACTA will not hinder 
freedom of the internet or freedom of speech.

Let's cut through this fog of uncertainty and put ACTA in the spotlight 
of our highest independent judicial authority: the European Court of 
Justice.

This clarity should help support a calm, reasoned, open and democratic 
discussion on ACTA - whether at the national or at the European level. 
We will also be in contact with the other European institutions to 
explain this step and why it would make sense that they make the same move.



On 2/22/2012 07:32, Frederic Donck wrote:
> http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120222-705795.html
>
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