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MEPS opposition to secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement grows
Stavros Lambrinidis of the S&D Group and also Vice President of the European Parliament alongside 4 other MEPs has questioned the European Commission on the secret ACTA treaty draft which the Parliament learnt about from the press
Four MEPs are spearheading a campaign to force the European Commission to release documents relating to the ACTA negotiations that have been kept from lawmakers. Led by Françoise Castex (S&D) they complain that they heard about the negotiations from reading the press and are concerned that the Commission is not informing Parliament and claim it has no mandate to negotiate a multinational treaty. Responding to reports and leaked copies of a draft treaty the MEPs, including Alexander Alvaro (ALDE), Zuzana Roithova (EPP) and Stavros Lambrinidis (S&D) have tabled a question to Commission and Council requesting full access to documents and asking if the treaty, as some suspect, will extend beyond counterfeiting. They also ask if it will impose obligations with respect to the internet, including a three strikes law, leading to termination of users accounts, denying them access to the internet.
They lawmakers are concerned about suggestions that Internet Service Providers will be forced to monitor citizens use of the internet. They claim that the risk of a three strikes law - cutting off access after three warnings - is a very real. Mr Lambrinidis said, "such a scheme would be remarkably invasive on privacy, it would give private companies rights that we don't even give the police in fighting terrorism." Seeing internet access as a fundamental right, they say that removing internet access would be disproportionate and would affect Innocent people. An ISP can only block a line, so this could affect an entire household or business, punishing others who may need the internet for business or school as well as the right of free expression.
They understood the need to fight piracy, but wanted efforts to target large scale commercial copyright infringements, rather than individuals and condemned what they saw as "bringing in legislation through the back door in secret negotiations." They also pointed out that Chine, the largest offender against copyright protection, would not be affected by the treaty. They also warned that the Commission could agree to a treaty that could breach EU law. Lambrinidis also explained that the EU already had laws in place to fight piracy.
Supporting their concerns is EuroISPA, the association of European Internet Service Providers, who issued a statement calling on European institutions to take no measures that could lead to a three strikes situation or monitoring of internet traffic. EuroISPA President, Malcolm Hutty said that "EuroISPA is concerned that the lack of transparency in negotiations is allowing neither the European Parliament nor stakeholders to enter the debate. This is a serious concern considering the crucial role of the internet for the development of the whole internet industry, consumers and citizens."
They also note that the Telecoms Package forced Council to accept new guarantees for the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair hearing before measures were taken against internet users and ask Parliament to be consistent with these principles.
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