The European Parliament overwhelmingly voted against an international anti-piracy trade agreement on Wednesday, July 4, after the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) sparked street protests in various cities across Europe over concerns that it would limit Internet freedom.
With 39 in favor, 478 against, and 165 abstentions, the crucial vote dealt the final blow to the EU's participation in a treaty it helped negotiate. Other countries, however, may still participate even without the European Union.
Supporters had claimed that ACTA was necessary to standardize the different national laws that protect the rights of those who often fall victim to piracy and intellectual property theft. According to the EU, protecting European ideas was crucial to the economic growth Europe needs more than anything.
Meanwhile, opponents feared such a treaty would result in censorship and monitoring the Internet activities of ordinary citizens. The agreement would have allowed private companies to snoop on the activities of Internet users, and would have permitted users to be disconnected without due process, said Alex Wilks, who directed the anti-ACTA campaign for the Avaaz advocacy group.
According to Wilks, the agreement did not properly consider the rights of private citizens and copyright holders. The EU and 22 of its member countries signed the agreement, as did eight other countries: the United States, Australia, Japan, Canada, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea. None of these eight countries has ratified it yet, but the EU vote will not affect them.
David Martin, a member of the European Parliament from Scotland, said the agreement is now officially dead. "No emergency surgery, no transplant, no long period of recuperation is going to save ACTA," said Martin, according to the Associated Press (AP). "It's time to give it its last rites. It's time to allow its friends to mourn and for the rest of us to get on with our lives."
Meanwhile, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said that he would continue to push ahead with his plan to have Europe's highest court determine whether the agreement would restrict any fundamental European rights. The commissioner is not ready to give up just yet, and said he will consider his next move based on that opinion.
"It's clear that the question of protecting intellectual property does need to be addressed on a global scale - for business, the creative industries, whether in Europe or our partner countries," said De Gucht. "With the rejection of ACTA, the need to protect the backbone of Europe's economy across the globe: our innovation, our creativity, our ideas - or intellectual property - does not disappear."
The overwhelming vote on Wednesday, however, seems to suggest the agreement, as currently written, has virtually no chance of being approved. Back in December, the treaty was unanimously approved by the 27 EU heads of government, but EU efforts to ratify it went under fire almost instantly. All 27 member countries would have to formally give their approval in order for the EU to become a party to the treaty.
Amid growing concerns that ACTA may limit Internet freedom, several European cities had their streets flooded with protests. An anti-ACTA petition by Avaaz gathered a whopping 2.8 million signatures, and played a major role in influencing the debate. As it started to seem increasingly more unlikely that all 27 countries would ratify the treaty, the European Commission suspended ratification efforts in February and asked the European Court of Justice to give its opinion on the matter. This move was widely seen as an attempt to stall and later try to resume ratification efforts in a calmer atmosphere and with a favorable court opinion.
"Today, the European Parliament has buried once and for all the ACTA treaty," France's governing Socialist Party said in a statement on Wednesday, according to the AP. "For the French Socialists, the vote marks the first and foremost a new inter-institutional balance of power, with the active participation of citizens in the European debate."
Meanwhile, copyright holders criticized Wednesday's vote, claiming it would significantly damage Europe's already sluggish economy. "The decision on ACTA is a missed opportunity for the EU to protect its creative and innovation-based industries in the international market place," reads a statement on behalf of Europe's "creative industries," representing 130 trade federations that cover sectors with over 120 million employees. "Intellectual property rights remain the engine for Europe's global competitiveness and a driver of economic growth and jobs. In the current economic climate, it is particularly crucial to protect these beyond the EU itself."
"Europe could have seized the chance to support an important treaty that improved intellectual property standards internationally," said Alan C. Drewsen, executive director of the International Trademark Association. "We expect that ACTA will move ahead without the EU, which is a significant loss for the 27 member states."
