Poland Government: We Were Wrong, We Will Not Ratify ACTA
Editorial Comment
ACTA is in its death throes, and the lethal blow came from young Europeans determined to keep their freedom of speech, with Poland leading the charge. Yes, “No rent-a-cop…, stand a chance against a resolutely uncooperative populace.” Congratulations to all those who organized on short notice and went out in the cold to protest against this stealth draconian law! It’s carnival time! After the party, let us all make sure ACTA never returns in any form.
Dady Chery, Editor
Haiti Chery
Protester “cool guy” wears Guy Fawkes mask at anti-ACTA demonstration (Photo: David W. Cerny).
Polish government asks European Parliament not to sign ACTA
PM Tusk has admitted he was wrong to support the treaty
By Alice Trudelle
Warsaw Business Journal
On Friday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk completed the about-face his government had started on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
Donald Tusk (Courtesy of Flickr/KPRM).
“I sent a letter today to all the party leaders who cooperate with the Civic Platform and the Polish People’s Party in the European People’s Party, including prime ministers, the [German] chancellor, presidents of some countries and the leadership of the European People’s Party, with a proposal to reject ACTA in the shape that was negotiated by the European Commission,”
Mr Tusk told a news conference Friday evening.
The PM admitted that the position prepared by Polish officials on ACTA over the last few months was
“reckless.”
“I was wrong. … It would be a sin to maintain a mistaken belief … the agreement does not correspond to the reality of the 21st century. The battle for the right to property should also respect the right to freedom.”
On January 26, the European Commission and 22 EU countries – including Poland – signed the deal, joining Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the US. But ACTA also needs to be ratified by the European Parliament and by each of the 27 EU member states in order to be implemented in the EU.
Source: Warsaw Business Journal
Slovenian government leans towards freezing ACTA
By Staff
The Slovenia Times
The government is leaning towards freezing the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Minister for Education, Science, Culture and Sport Žiga Turk told the press coming out of a government session.
“We do not see a practical need for Slovenia to ratify it in this very moment,” Turk told the press.
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The Economic Development Ministry said Žerjav would speak about ACTA at Friday’s public presentation of opinions, which has been organised by the parliamentary EU Affairs Committee.
The debate will coincide with the second protest against ACTA (the first one was held two weeks ago), organised by online activists.
According to the initiator of the protest, Gregor Plemenko, the operation undertaken by hacker collective Anonymous to push the government to freeze the ratification of ACTA was still under way, despite a drop of activity from last weekend, when the group brought multiple websites down.
Meanwhile the editors of the E-demokracija.si portal said that Turk’s statement was nothing but an effort to downplay tomorrow’s debate.
They noted that the freezing of ACTA was not enough, as the agreement should be rejected completely and the opportunity to discuss a better regulation of the internet seized.
The agreement was signed on 26 January in Tokyo by representatives of the European Commission and 22 of the 27 EU member states, including Slovenia.
The signing provoked outrage around Europe and several countries have already halted ratification procedures, among them Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
The accord is designed to protect copyright and crack down on online piracy, but critics say it will lead to intrusive surveillance and censorship.
Sources: Warsaw Business Journal | The Slovenia Times | Haiti Chery: editorial comment, photos
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