European Parliament Official In Charge Of ACTA Quits, And Denounces The 'Masquerade' Behind ACTA. MEP quits ACTA 'charade' in protest at EU signing. A French MEP has quit the process of scrutinising ACTA for the European Parliament, calling the treaty's passage through the EU legislative system a masquerade.
In a statement on Thursday, Kader Arif denounced the signing of ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) by the EU and 22 member states earlier in the day. He said the European Parliament was being undermined and the process was a "charade" in which he would no longer participate. An EU diplomat signed ACTA, which is aimed at harmonising the intellectual property enforcement regimes of many countries, on behalf of the European Commission, along with member states including the UK.
However, the European Parliament will only vote on ACTA in June, after the EU International Trade Committee (INTA) examines it. Arif was the person in that committee who was assigned as 'rapporteur' with special responsibility for the treaty. ACTA : démissionnaire, Kader Arif dénonce "une mascarade" Numerama le révélait ce midi.
Kader Arif, le rapporteur de l'ACTA au Parlement Européen, a décidé de démissionner par surprise de sa mission cruciale pour la ratification de l'accord anti-contrefaçon. C'est bien la signature de l'accord par l'Union Européenne à Tokyo ce jeudi qui a motivé sa décision. "Je tiens à dénoncer de la manière la plus vive l'ensemble du processus qui a conduit à la signature de cet accord : non association de la société civile, manque de transparence depuis le début des négociations, reports successifs de la signature du texte sans qu'aucune explication ne soit donnée, mise à l'écart des revendications du Parlement Européen pourtant exprimées dans plusieurs résolutions de notre assemblée", dénonce-t-il.
L'eurodéputé confirme également ce que nous signalions au sujet du calendrier imposé au pas de charge aux commissions parlementaires chargées d'exprimer leur avis sur le contenu de l'accord. A l'heure actuelle, nul ne semble savoir qui va remplacer Kader Arif. ACTA rapporteur denounces ACTA mascarade. Source: ACTA : une mascarade à laquelle je ne participerai pas - Kader Arif Kader Arif, rapporteur for ACTA in the European Parliament quit his role as rapporteur saying: ”I want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, exclusion of the EU Parliament's demands that were expressed on several occasions in our assembly.”
“As rapporteur of this text, I have faced never-before-seen manoeuvres from the right wing of this Parliament to impose a rushed calendar before public opinion could be alerted, thus depriving the Parliament of its right to expression and of the tools at its disposal to convey citizens' legitimate demands.” [edit] Original version (FR) : [edit] Deutsche Version (GER/AUT) [edit] Swedish version (SE)