Media News - Monday, January 30, 2012

European Parliament rapporteur quits in Acta protest

Negotiations over a controversial anti-piracy agreement have been described as a "masquerade" by a key Euro MP. Kader Arif, the European Parliament's rapporteur for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), resigned over the issue on Friday. He said he had witnessed "never-before-seen manoeuvres" by officials preparing the treaty. On Thursday, 22 EU member states signed the agreement. The treaty still needs to be ratified by the European Parliament before it can be enacted. A debate is scheduled to take place in June. Mr Arif criticised the efforts to push forward with the measures ahead of those discussions taking place. "I condemn the whole process which led to the signature of this agreement: no consultation of the civil society, lack of transparency since the beginning of negotiations, repeated delays of the signature of the text without any explanation given, reject of Parliament's recommendations as given in several resolutions of our assembly." Mr Arif's decision to stand down follows protests by campaigners in Poland. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets after the agreement was signed. The treaty has caused controversy since an early discussion paper was published by Wikileaks in 2008 - two years after negotiations first began. The details were subsequently confirmed in 2010. (BBC News)

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