European Parliament Declares Its Independence From The European Commission With A Massive Rejection Of ACTA. Now What?
from the power-to-the-people dept
In a plenary vote today, the European Parliament has rejected ACTA by 478 votes to 39, with 165 abstentions. That followed a failed attempt by the right-of-center EPP Group to call for a postponement. Although the final result was not totally unexpected, since the signs had been pointing this way for a time, it nonetheless represents a huge victory for campaigners who had more or less given up hope of stopping ACTA in Europe even a few months ago. So the question now becomes: what are the ramifications?
In its closing speech, the European Commission repeated its statement that it would wait for the European Court of Justice's opinion on the compatibility of ACTA with the EU's laws, even if the vote went against it. It also hinted that it might then call for another vote on ACTA in the European Parliament. Whether that was simply a bluff, or whether it will go ahead with this seemingly pointless exercise, is unclear.
David Martin, the EU parliamentarian charged with handling the ACTA vote, said afterwards in a press conference that he did not believe the Commission could simply re-submit ACTA in its present form. Changing ACTA would require agreement from the other ACTA signatories, which is likely to be hard to obtain, but even then Martin was skeptical that ACTA was the right way to address the problem of counterfeit goods. Moreover, the sheer size of the majority against ACTA today means that the Commission can't realistically hope that next time things will go much better. Instead, Martin suggested splitting ACTA into two new and quite distinct treaties -- one dealing with physical counterfeits, the other with online infringement.
Martin also said that he believed that ACTA is dead, and not only in the European Union. For example, he noted that Australia's politicians were having second thoughts even before the EU vote. If, in the wake of today's resounding rejection, Australia also refuses to ratify the treaty, it will leave ACTA looking tattered and hardly the exemplary globe-spanning agreement its supporters have been pushing for. And that's assuming that the US administration can resolve the issues surrounding its own approval of the treaty, and can muster enough ratifications among other signatories so that ACTA comes into force. And as people are already pointing out, if ACTA does collapse, TPP might be next.
The true measure of the effect of the European Parliament's rejection of ACTA remains to be seen; but two things are already clear. The first is a new recognition that European citizens not only care deeply about key issues like freedom and privacy, but that they are keen to engage with politicians on these and related subjects, as the President of the European Parliament acknowledged in a statement after the ACTA vote:
The debate on ACTA demonstrated the existence of European public opinion that transcends national borders. All over Europe, people were engaged in protests and debates. The mobilisation of public opinion was unprecedented. As the President of the European Parliament, I am committed to dialogue with citizens and to make Europe more democratic and understandable.
The second point was noted by David Martin in a blog post published shortly after ACTA's defeat:
This is a historic day in terms of European politics. For the first time the European Parliament has used the powers granted by the Lisbon Treaty to reject an International Trade Agreement. The Commission and the Council will now be aware that they cannot overrun the Parliament, which represents and defends citizens' rights. This vote represents true democracy in action and the coming of age of the European Parliament.
In other words, the rejection of ACTA by the EU is not just a victory for the activists who took to the streets of Europe earlier this year, and the huge numbers of people who contacted their politicians to express their concern: this is also a victory for the European Parliament, which hitherto has been little more than a rubber stamp for the European Commission's proposals.
That has important consequences for the future, since it means that the Commission will need to be more circumspect when dealing with the Parliament. That, in its turn, is likely to lead to more transparency and participation by European citizens in the process of crafting new laws and treaties. In particular, it means that whatever the European Commission comes up with as a response to this major defeat over ACTA, it will not be able to assume that it can always get what it wants. Today's subtle but important shift in power within European politics will also be felt at the international level, since the Commission's negotiators will no longer be able to conduct meetings behind closed doors that fail to take into account what the European Parliament -- and ultimately the people of Europe -- are willing to accept.
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Filed Under: acta, australia, david martin, european commission, european court of justice, european parliament, tpp
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YAY!
Well done EU Parliament! Maybe now you can grow a backbone and be the organisation that you are meant to be, instead of another League of Nations...
Let me just say, this makes me proud to be European. Now, to find out who voted for this proposal... I think we have elections coming up!
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Re: YAY!
I've always been a committed Euro-Sceptic and have vehemently argued against any transition of powers from the UK to Europe.
However, seeing the shameful way my government signed off on ACTA (and numerous other recent opressive acts) and the way the EU parliament has listened to the people I'm less sure.
Today, I'm proud to be European.
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Re: YAY!
All that aside, i'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the consequences of this, like when the US tells India that they have to sign ACTA to trade with them and India just says "Fine, we'll sell our stuff to Europe instead then".
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Re: YAY!
http://www.votewatch.eu/cx_vote_details.php?id_act=3055&euro_vot_valoare=0&euro_vot _rol_euro_grup=&euro_vot_rol_euro_tara=&vers=2&order_by=euro_parlamentar_nume&order= ASC&last_order_by=euro_parlamentar_nume&limit=0&offset=0&nextorder=ASC&euro_tara _id=&euro_grup_id=&euro_vot_valoare=%2B&euro_vot_rol_euro_grup=
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Re: Re: YAY!
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ACTA was dealt yet another killing blow and CERN has come closer to finding the Higgs Boson.
Both my geek side and my "normal" side are happy today :)
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(Normally I celebrate 4th July as "Happy We-got-rid-of-a-bunch-of-useless-colonies Day :)
Happy 4th July to you all! Enjoy the fireworks, and send a few at the European Commission!
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Re: Re: It gets better. :-)
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Of course sadly we have now slipped back into the "useless" category. I must say, it is very conflicting being an American, I am extremely proud of what this nation once was and the principles it was built upon, but I am now disgusted when I look at what it has become and how far we have strayed from those principles.
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Re: Re: Re: Past, Future, repeat!
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Re: Re: Re:
Being "American" isn't really about loyalty to a country, as much as loyalty to a set of principles. If it were all about loyalty to a nation those in most of the US would still likely be British citizens.
The "confusion" comes when a nation (or more accurately the government administering that nation) slowly fails to live up to the principles that nation was founded upon (as the US has slowly started to do).
I will still be a loyal American, even if the US, as a country, ceases to be such.
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It's constant vigilance such as that shown by European citizens prior to this vote which gains freedom.
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and not being too bloody laid back to think it cant happen, it wont happen, there's too many of us compared to them. oh shit!! too late!! it's in! now what do we do??
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Now an important point to make is I will NOT fight and die for the government in its current form. I am loyal to my country not to the corrupt government that now runs it.
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Welcome to the "we were once powerful" club! :)
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"America has its problems, but I would rather have its problems than most any other country’s in the world."
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Other than you guys, we managed to get control (for a while) of everything else we wanted and half the world besides. See how long that lasted? I suspect American Exceptionalism is going to have some exceptional disappointments in the years to come.
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Nothing at all subtle about that vote
I can't see the Commission trying to bring it back now, though their arrogance in this process is enough to convince me that they can't recognize road kill when they see it. Road kill as in run over by a dozen D-9 Caterpillars. About as subtle too.
Good on 'em. The trip from rubber stamp to actual parliament is hard but it seems the MEPs have taken up the cudgel in a big, big way.
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Re: Nothing at all subtle about that vote
For those who want to study the votes in more detail, you can see of the 39 who voted in favor of ACTA, most came from the EPP; abstentions likewise.
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Re: Re: Nothing at all subtle about that vote
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Hope it doesn't and they get nuked out of the next election as the voters defect to the greens and the pirate party.
Aaanyway..! Happy day! July 4th is actually feeling a little bit like independence day here in the old world.
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Greens in Denmark has the danish minister of trade and she has been one of the most loud and most incomprehensible protectors of ACTA. The only arguments from the minister of trade was a rejection of the arguments of the protesters and a restatement of some completely unsolicitated growth-numbers that ACTA would have on the danish economy.
Sweden has a pirate party and that will probably drive the debate in a more reasonable direction, but do not believe that it will be much better.
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/torvalds
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/Stallman
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32T_9vVf8Bw
bloody well done to him!!
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... Hey, I got a weird way of celebrating. I'm sure you got your own way of celebrating, right?
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Hello, I need my troll hazing fix ...
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Re: Hello, I need my troll hazing fix ...
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Re: Hello, I need my troll hazing fix ...
Fine, I guess I'll have to do, since none of the other shills seem to be doing their jobs!!!
the only reason this bill failed is because everyone wants stricter IP laws with longer extensions. everyone kept on complaining to the parliament that these laws didn't go far enough. ip lengths need to be further extended and piracy must be stopped!!! that's what all the ACTA protesting was all about, but you techdirt freetards kept on misinterpreting them to say that they were about stopping copyrights and not expanding it.
so next time parliament will address the public outrage by introducing an even stricter bill that will stop piracy at all costs!!!! and then the population will be happy and stop protesting.
now where is my raise??
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Re: Hello, I need my troll hazing fix ...
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Re: Hello, I need my troll hazing fix ...
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Re: Hello, I need my troll hazing fix ...
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One-Hit Wonder
However, why do I get the feeling that history will repeat itself and there will be a retaliating strike the day after like they did with Megaupload?
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Re: One-Hit Wonder
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Re: One-Hit Wonder
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Anyway, who gives a shit about the US, they are as navel-gazing as the French.
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Never fired, dropped once.
I kid, I kid, his comment wasn't based in anything close to a plane of reality we would recognize.
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Now if only Canada had the balls to do the same...
Remember all who in Canada signed ACTA, added Digital locks and signed on to TPP...
Harper, Maxime Bernier, Tony Clements, Bev Oda, Prentice and Verner
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Re: Now if only Canada had the balls to do the same...
Oh, and I hope you didn't expect anything better from the former natural governing party -- The Liberals. They did this sort of thing all the time.
Maple flavoured taco anyone?
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Remember Sam I am
Let schadenfreude rule!
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Re: Remember Sam I am
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Re: Remember Sam I am
On the other hand, we do have a good handful of trolls to use TF2 Medic responses on. Did ze Frauloweries have zeir Mittelschmerz? I guess all his sleeping giant artist friends are still sleeping!
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Congrats
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All this
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CISPA's not dead yet, though. It passed in the House of Representatives, but it still needs to go before the Senate. People of the United States of America, the ball's back in your court. Make us all proud...
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Re:
We can keep killing all of this that they keep sending down the tube.
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And somewhere, the shills are all doing the Darth Vader emo yell. In the meantime, the rest of us all around the world rejoice at the death of ACTA.
"And if we should win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday. But as the day when the internet cried out in one voice, 'We will not go quietly into the night! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!' "
The Day That ACTA Died
---------------------------------------------------
Bye, bye, that bill ACTA's died
Took my uploads to the locker
But the locker was down
Them good old boys
Were seeding torrents and files
Sayin' this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day that it dies
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8lHeAllz2E
Happy 4th of July from a Mexican reader.
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July 5th!
Ah but what to look forwards to now... Oh right, that dastardly evil machination called Trans-Pacific Partnership Yikes... infinitely WORSE than all the other stupid alphabets they have been trying to pass lately.
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Sort of sucks, but it explains why this is likely to go away at some point.
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ACTA Fraud by Obama
With the EU out of the picture and Oz rethinking now all we need to do is kill TPP.
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tolerate
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Awesome
Thanks
Raju
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Nice post
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