ACTA In Secret Reading Room For EU Parliament

Members of the European Parliament will be able to read the current draft of the much-debated Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in the “secret reading room” for the Parliament, Green Party Member Jan Philipp Albrecht told Intellectual Property Watch after this week’s committee sessions with EU Commissioner Karel DeGucht. DeGucht reiterated the main commitments about ACTA not bringing changes to existing EU legislation, a commitment still called into question by some MEPs including Albrecht. While satisfied about the access to the new draft, Pirate Party Member Christian Engtröm said he decided to leave an informational session with DeGucht on Monday after he was told that he could not share information of the session with the public. He also would not accept information under such conditions, nor did he feel the Commission was fully informing the Parliament. The refusal to allow information sharing looks unusual given the fact that a session of the Civil Liberty Committee with DeGucht on Wednesday was even streamed in parts and fully posted later (Knowledge Ecology International posted a summary of this session here).

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch