EU Approves ACTA – Leaked EU Letters Refer to "Treaty"

The EU has passed ACTA, in a close vote  with a 16 vote margin. [See the official record of the vote.]  The full text of the resolution is available here.

There have also been two version of a leaked letter [one with comments, and one without comments] between De Gucht and ALDE MEPs discussing the vote. The annotated version appears to have been written by ALDE staff but I am not sure. Interesting that De Gucht calls ACTA is a “treaty,” an issue that raises competency issues in the EU as well as the U.S. USTR refuses to use that term, although it clearly is under international law. But treaties require congressional consent. Of course, so do executive orders on matters dealing with Article I sec. 8 powers of congress.

For more on ACTA’s constitutional problem, please see my ealier blog post: http://www.wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/blog-post/acta-s-constitutional-problem