The European Parliament has voted against the ratification of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) by the European Union. The Treaty was rejected by 478 votes. Thirty-nine members of the European Parliament voted in favour, while 146 abstained.
All the Maltese members of the European Parliament voted against the Treaty.
ACTA is a multilateral agreement between the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, the EU and 22 of its Member States, amongst which Malta. Signed on 1 October 2011, the Treaty has evoked a lot of debate, argumentation, protests and turmoil over the past months. The Treaty aims at securing standardised Intellectual Property rights enforcement over a wide range of industries. Critics have however argued that the Treaty impinges on the right to freedom of expression, information and privacy.
While today’s vote in ACTA has momentarily eliminated the possibility that the Treaty is ratified by the EU, the Treaty could still be revived if the European Commission wins the pending Court decision. Acting at the executive arm of the EU, the Commission has requested the European Court of Justice to rule on whether ACTA is in line with European Fundamental Rights such as the freedom of expression and information or data protection and the right to property including that of intellectual property.
To come into force, ACTA requires that it is ratified by six states and thus could still become a reality elsewhere in the world provided that six of the eight non-EU countries that have signed the Treaty go on to ratify it.
