[Chapter-delegates] [European-chapters] Action needed: voting on ACTA at the European Parliament

[Eduard Tric]

Thank you Frederic for the update.
We informally agree with the plan , we will have a more formal board meeting this week in Bucharest .
Some facts about Acta and Romania.
In Romania Acta is the subject of the week. The Romanian MEP's are identified.  Their position in the eu Parliament  so far is : PP affiliated : pro acta . Socialists against acata. Liberals Against acta. Greens : against (but no romanian green MEP so far ). Isoc Romania was invited today to speak about Acta at prime time at romanian national TV . We decided to organize a national workshop  about Acta, inviting all the stakeholders (Mep,s , national parliament, industry, press, government) . Mihai Radulescu , the anchor of TVR1 (national tv ) , agreed to moderate the  workshop/discussion . 
We agreed to publish on our website articles of our members about Acta.
We have a meeting tomorrow at the minstry of telecom (to sign a Digital Alliance protocol) and will invite the government to express their point of view (if any). Two sources confirmed so far that telecom Minister Valerian Vreme has signed the treaty without informing the prime minister and the rest of the government. The group photo is here : http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/ipr/acta_syomei1201.html
We have never seen such mobilisation against a treaty coming from internet users and the press. 
We feel that if we don't act now now we will loose the leadership ( http://www.apti.ro in romania and http://www.edri.org/ at eu level ).
Having a paper towards MEP,s is good , it would be nice to have also a glossy ISOC PDF paper targeted  towards Internet Users (ISOC rationale to convince internet users to write to  their MEP's to stop the treaty).
Good luck , there is a lot of work to do , as far as we are concerned, we are doing our best to act at national level.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frederic Donck" <donck at isoc.org>
To: "European Chapters" <european-chapters at elists.isoc.org>
Cc: "Delegates Chapter" <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>, "jozef halbersztadt" <jozef.halbersztadt at gmail.com>, "Markus Kummer" <kummer at isoc.org>, "Wilkinson Christopher" <ecc-board at isoc-ecc.org>, "Ted Mooney" <mooney at isoc.org>, "ISOC Chapter Support" <chapter-support at isoc.org>, "Roseman Walda" <roseman at isoc.org>, "Runnegar Christine" <runnegar at isoc.org>
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 4:34:15 PM
Subject: Re: [European-chapters] Action needed: voting on ACTA at the	European Parliament

Dear All

Thanks for your mails re: ACTA in Europe, as well as the pointers which you have referred to and your many suggestions to engage collectively. This is very timely and extremely useful.
We totally agree and we too believe that a concerted action towards MEPs will prove very efficient at this stage as the EU Parliament will be at the centre of this debate in Europe in the coming weeks.
This said, the biggest challenge will also take place at *national* level (as recently evidenced by the Polish situation, among others) and this is where your engagement with local authorities will be instrumental as well.
So, this is the scenario which we would propose as a next step:

1. In coordination with ISOC Policy team, we will draft an overall message for the MEPs in advance of their many meetings in the coming weeks. And we will share it with you all, on the European Chapters list with a view to finalize our global message. 
Action: ISOC to draft and circulate overall message to MEPs.
2. In the next coming days, the EU Bureau shall collect the list (names, addresses, committees, nationality, Party affiliation) of all the MEPs who will be involved in the ACTA discussion in the coming weeks. We know that the INTA (International Trade Cttee of the European Parliament) has the lead within the EP, but many other committees will be drafting their own opinion (Legal Affairs, Development, Civil Liberties and Industry) so the objective will be to reach those MEPs as well. 
Action: The EU Bureau shall circulate a list which can be easily used by each of us, i.e. broken a.o. by nationality so that each chapter can easily reach their own national representatives within the EP, in their own language, on top of our global message. This should maximize the impact of our global engagement at both EU and national level.
3. The EU Bureau shall obtain clarification on a complete timeschedule, in particular the deadlines for the EP committess' opinion and will circulate it on this list.  
4. We will monitor the EU situation and invite you to do it as well at national level and exchange on this list, going forward. Many chapters have already engaged at local level in Europe (Slovenia, Luxembourg, UK, Poland, etc.) and we would of course benefit from everybody's feedback. For sure, we would also benefit from chapters experience outside of Europe and this is why I have opened the current list to the global chapters delegates list (sorry the redundancy) I have in mind, among many others, the very important role which Alejandro and other members of ISOC Mexico have played in informing the Mexican Senate re: ACTA. So, any advise re: their successful local engagement is highly welcome.
5. Last but not least, the EU Bureau is in the process to organise a F2F meeting in March where ISOC (Policy and Bureau) will be meeting with the Danish Presidency and some key stakeholders in Brussels (incl. relevant MEPs). I shall keep you informed of the progress re: this meeting in due course.

I hope this scenario works for you all and, in the meantime, we will need to keep each of us informed at all stage of the process going forward and we welcome any further suggestions.
Thanks again for your engagement and we look forward to engaging in the next steps with you all

Best Regards
Frederic

Frederic Donck
Director European Regional Bureau
Internet Society

www.isoc.org




Le 28 janv. 2012 à 11:57, Patrick Vande Walle a écrit :

> Hello to all, and especially Frédéric,
> 
> Does ISOC, together with the European chapters plan to alert the MEPs on the danger of the ACTA treaty ? 
> 
> I think the potential to see this blocked by the EP is real. Many MEPs are unhappy with the way have been excluded from the discussion. The rapporteur from the Parliament has resigned in protest.
> What still needs to be done is to convince the unaware or skeptic MEPs that ACTA is a real danger both for Net neutrality and for freedom of expression. 
> 
> I am sure lawyers will be able to demonstrate that some provisions in the treaty are incompatible with the European charter on fundamental rights. Still, there is room for ISOC to make its voice heard. We have been very successful on SOPA/PIPA lately in the US. I trust we can do the same on ACTA in Europe. 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Patrick  
> _______________________________________________
> European-chapters mailing list
> European-chapters at elists.isoc.org
> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/european-chapters

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