European Socialists say 'Stop ACTA'

 The leader of the Party of European Socialists (PES), Sergei Stanishev, said he was "proud" that his European political family was the first to come up with a clear position on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which he says is against the interests of European citizens. The Labour Party is a member of PES. The PN is a member of the European People Party (EPP) which is baking ACTA.

The Socialists yesterday (9 February) called the ACTA agreement - recently signed by the Commission and 22 EU states including Malta "wrong in both content and process".

The PES leader blasted the secrecy under which the anti-counterfeiting agreement was drafted, saying that gradually, even countries that signed ACTA will realise they should not ratify the agreement. The ratification process takes place both at the national level and in the European Parliament, where a vote is expected in June.

"Many of the governments were not aware of the dangers which are implicit in ACTA. I'm thinking of Poland, I'm thinking of the Czech Republic. There will be more to come," he said.].

"For me ACTA is dead the way it is. This process should start from the beginning and it should be a transparent process," Stanishev said, adding he fully supported the resignation of the European Parliament’s rapporteur for ACTA. French MEP Kader Arif (Socialists & Democrats) resigned in protest after the 22 members signed ACTA on 26 January. Arif said he had "never before seen manoeuvres" by officials preparing the treaty.

Stanishev said that he had nothing against the US, that opposition to ACTA was a matter of principle.

"When I was elected as PES president I said one of my major priorities will be to work for a democratic Europe. Because democracy is not granted once and forever. And human rights are not granted once and forever. There will always be attempts to limit them, often with the most noble intention, or wording," he said.

"Intellectual property rights should be defended. Creativity should be defended. The United States is a democratic country as well. They should also fight for democracy and civil rights. In every country there are attempts to limit the human rights. But we don't want to live in a society of Big Brothers, right? We don't want to live in 1984, as George Orwell depicted such a society in his powerful novel," he said.

Source: Euractiv.com