Liberals and Democrats reject ACTA / 26-04-2012

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament announced that it cannot support ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement).

Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE group leader said that "Although we unambiguously support the protection of intellectual property rights, we also champion fundamental rights and freedoms. We have serious concerns that ACTA does not strike the right balance."

"We remain supportive of multilateral efforts to protecting intellectual property rights but ones based on a sectoral approach and a transparent and publicly discussed mandate."

Niccolò Rinaldi, (IdV, Italy), ALDE spokesperson on ACTA in the EP international trade committee added:
"Civil society has been extremely vocal in recent months in raising their legitimate concerns on the ACTA agreement which we share. There are too many provisions lacking clarity and certainty as to the way they would be implemented in practice."

"Furthermore, ACTA wrongly bundles together too many different types of IPR enforcement under the same umbrella, treating physical goods and digital services in the same way. We believe they should be approached in separate sectoral agreements, and following a comprehensive and democratically debated mandate and impact assessment."

"Finally, the countries that are the main sources of counterfeit goods are not party to the agreement, so its value is questionable."

(Portal Europe)