Legal Affairs Committee to Vote on ACTA This Week

The European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee will its rapporteur’s draft opinion on ACTA this Wednesday, and will vote on Thursday whether or not to recommend that Parliament give its consent to the Agreement.  FFII has written a letter to the members of the Committee, warning that “ACTA’s civil, border and criminal provisions themselves are often disproportional and go beyond current EU law. These provisions lack precise limitations and conflict with the general safeguards. The conflicts will have to be resolved during implementation.”  FFII asks the committee to propose that Parliament withhold its consent to ACTA.

Last week, La Quadrature du Net posted an overview of the upcoming work on ACTA by the various parliamentary committees over the summer, and  MEP Schaake posted a video summary of the ACTA stakeholder meeting.  Earlier this month, the committee’s Rapporteur for ACTA David Martin warned of the agreement’s potential “threats to civil liberties and internet freedom.”