The Members of the European Parliament sent a strong signal yesterday to the European Commission to uphold the Union's standards of respecting fundamental rights in the ongoing international negotiations for an Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement. 

A majority of them (more than 380) adopted bipartisan Written Declaration 12/2010, sponsored by Stavros Lambrinidis (EP Vice-President, Greece), Alexander Alvaro (ALDE, Germany), Francoise Castex (S& D, France) and Zuzana Roithova (EPP, Czech Republic). It demands from the Commission, which negotiates the deal on behalf of the EU, full transparency on the ongoing negotiations and not accepting provisions that could hamper internet access and effectively install internet policing by private companies. The Written Declaration now stands as the official position of the House.

In a press conference called today in the wake of the adoption of the Written Declaration, Vice-President Lambrinidis hailed the development as a very strong signal that Parliament is here to safeguard citizens fundamental rights: "It is an unequivocal statement from our side to the Commission, to negotiate hard on removing contentious provisions from the final agreement. We must stop some governments around the world that, using illegal downloading as a scarecrow, are attempting to put in the arms of private companies controlling powers over the daily internet activities of European citizens".  

"The adoption of this declaration is the proof that the European Parliament, which has not stopped trying to put limits on the willingness of France and other Member states to control the Interne, will continue to watch out and protect  the civil liberties of our citizens to the end" continued Francoise Castex.

Alexander Alvaro added: "Copyright and intellectual property infringements have to be persecuted. However, this legitimate goal should not be misused for circumventing existing European legislation. I hope that thanks to the success of our Written Declaration not only the Commission, but also our international negotiation partners have understood the determination of the European Parliament on this matter."

Zuzana Roithova commented: "Commissioner De Gucht tried to assure us that all European citizens will benefit from the ratification of ACTA. I disagree. ACTA will not help European consumers, concerning the fact that countries as China, India or Brasil, which are the biggest exporters of the counterfeited goods are not signatory parties of this treaty. Moreover, filtering of everyday Internet communication is still the remaining issue, which can appear when the treaty will be implemented on the national level. It could lead to absolutely unacceptable breaches of privacy of individuals. ACTA deal with large-scale commercial counterfeiting with out-dated rules and weapons. The current ACTA is not a modern treaty for the challenges of the 21st century. " 

Contact details:
VP Stavros Lambrinidis: Sofia ASTERIADI +32498981371 e-mail sofia.asteriadi@europarl.europa.eu and  stavros.lambrinidis-office@europarl.europa.eu  http://www.lambrinidis.gr 

Françoise Castex: Raphaël DELARUE +32486359463 e-mail francoise.castex@europarl.europa.eu http://www.francoisecastex.org/

Alexander Alvaro: Marton KOVACS: +32 2 28 37328 e-mail marton.kovacs@europarl.europa.eu and alexander.alvaro@europarl.europa.eu http://www.alexander-alvaro.de/

Zuzana Roithova: Jiri JIRSA +32485949099, e-mail zuzana.roithova@europearl.europa.eu, http://www.roithova.cz