What is ACTA? Read Wired.co.uk’s guide to ACTA
European advocacy group La Quadrature du Net released a statement urging people to fight Acta by lobbying their MEPs before a vote on Acta in the European Parliament in June.
The statement said: “A few days after the online protests against the anti-sharing bills SOPA and PIPA in the United States, today’s signing ceremony of Acta is the symbol of the circumvention of democracy to impose policies that hurt freedom of communication and innovation worldwide. However, this highly symbolic signature is not the end of the road.”
Spokesperson Jérémie Zimmermann said: “In the last few days, we have seen encouraging protests by Polish and other EU citizens, who are rightly concerned with the effect of Acta on freedom of expression, access to medicines, but also access to culture and knowledge.
“European citizens must reclaim democracy, against the harmful influence of corporate interests over global policy-making. For each of the coming debates and votes in the EU Parliament’s committees before the final vote this summer, citizens must engage with their representatives,” he concluded.
What can you do about Acta?
If you don’t like the sound of Acta, it’s not too late to do something about it. Acta — like all trade agreements — still needs to be presented to the European Parliament for a vote.Before Acta goes to vote in European Parliament, a number of committees are giving their opinion on the text in a report by the International Trade Committee (Inta). Opponents to Acta can contact Inta, along with the Legal Affairs (Juri) and Development (Deve), Civil Liberties (Libe) and Industry (Itre) committees. Each committee is to vote on whether they support the treaty before sending their views to Inta for the final report.
La Quadrature du Net advises opponents of Acta to:
- Get comfortable with the arguments
- Select any MEP from the Inta committee and call them
- Politely tell them your concerns
- Repeat 1-3
To find out about the next steps for Acta and how you can protest it, visit La Quadrature du Net’s page.
