Pressure mounts on final ACTA vote

THERE ARE JUST DAYS LEFT to voice your opposition to the evil Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), as the European Parliament will hold its final and decisive vote by the end of this week.

The ACTA treaty has already been roundly beaten in the European Parliament, but it has some life in it yet. This week the bloodied agreement will limp into view during the 2-5 July plenary session and you can be sure that its carcass, stinking and covered in flies though it might be, will still be held aloft by political supporters beholden to international corporate interests.

Those supporters might not want to show their faces. If you remember, in the last vote MEP Karel de Gucht and his cronies wanted the cameras taken out, but the anti-ACTA lobby is not so shy.

They are shouting their anti-ACTA messages from the rooftops and urging people to contact their MEPs and tell them to vote No against ACTA.

European Digital Rights group EDRI says that a line has been drawn in the Parliament and recommends that you contact members of the supporting parties.

"The ALDE, Greens, GUE/NGL and S&D groups have already taken a clear position against the Agreement," it says. "We should focus on EPP and ECR members of the EU Parliament rather than alienating our friends." A link to a list of relevant MEPs follows this recommendation.

"We're almost there," says James Booth, writing on the Open Rights Group web site above a list of more representatives.

Booth warns that there have been, and could be more, pushes to get ACTA approved, despite it having been beaten so roundly in earlier committee votes.

"It would seem that, despite consistent, significant, and legitimate democratic opposition to the treaty, Karel de Gucht is determined to press ahead with ACTA in any way he can. 'Clarifications', promised to be made should the ECJ decide against ACTA, are simply not possible: the treaty has now been signed, and so its contents cannot be amended unless it is first ratified," he warns.

"From the moment it was sprung upon Europe, following a drafting process held in secret, the passage of ACTA has been lubricated by a total disregard for democratic principles. The European Commission has effectively sought to move decisions about ACTA further away from the people and their elected representatives." µ