The Committee for a Democratic U.N. (KDUN) has reiterated its criticism of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) (see here, here and here) that was signed yesterday in Tokyo by the European Union and its member states. Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Marocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States already signed on October 1, 2011. In order to enter into force, the treaty now needs to be ratified by the European Parliament and national parliaments. “We recommend that ratification should be rejected by the European Parliament and national legislatures,” said Andreas Bummel, chair of the Committee.

Worst fears confirmed

The Committee objects to the “intransparent and undemocratic nature” of the treaty negotiations that were conducted since 2008. “The resignation of Kader Arif as rapporteur on ACTA in the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee yesterday confirms our worst fears. Mr. Arif has referred to unprecedented manoeuvres to fast track the legislation as soon as possible, depriving the parliament further from the opportunity to scrutinise the treaty,” said Mr. Bummel.

ACTA might become a dangerous precedent

“There was no meaningful public consultation, no involvement of parliaments or elected representatives, the drafts were only published very late and after strong public protests, and on top of that governments did invite global corporate lobbyists to provide feedback, giving them, and not the public and their elected representatives, an opportunity to influence the treaty’s regulations according to their wishes. ACTA is an example for secret diplomacy, something that should belong into the history books. Experts and legislators who have looked into the details of this treaty say that its regulations infringe on fundamental rights and that it is a danger to internet freedom. Even if this was not the case, by ratifying this treaty, parliaments would rubber-stamp the scandalous negotiation process and thus approve of their own complete disempowerment. ACTA potentially sets an example for future global negotiations. We strongly oppose this attempt to establish a precedent for undemocratic and intransparent global rule-making. It has to be made clear that so-called plurilateral negotiations that are conducted in this manner are unacceptable and will not succeed. For this reason alone, parliaments should reject the treaty. They need to send a strong signal that governments need to involve them and the public in such negotiations,” Mr. Bummel stated.

According to KDUN, the example of ACTA underpins the need for a global parliamentary assembly – a body of elected representatives that would be able to deal with multilateral negotiations of this kind and represent the global public.

Avaaz, a global citizen’s movement, is now collecting online signatures to call on the European Parliament to not ratify ACTA.