Whilst Twenty-two of the European countries have already signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trademark Agreement, commonly known as ACTA, European’s biggest economy country – Germany – will hold off signing the treaty unless and until the EU parliamentary decision will come into affect before moving ahead.
German publication Spiegel.de reports, “In Germany, the Treaty, the Acta has not yet signed only for formal reasons, the Department of Justice is responsible for the ratification. The minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP), has now made it clear that in Germany first before a decision is to decide the EU Parliament.”
“The EU must now decide whether it needs Acta and wants,” said Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. “This must be approved by the European Parliament only once. All controversial issues are being discussed at European level and must now be answered.” She stressed again that it is clear for Germany no legislative action because of Acta. Why would “make the EU the critical questions of why the agreement is necessary,” said Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. “It is good that the public debate about Acta, both on and offline so committed is done,” the justice minister said on Thursday.
ACTA, which is somehow similar to the SOPA and PIPA, already seen a lot of protests and happenings all around the Europe. ACTA has been significantly changed now from its earlier versions, removing an earlier demand that internet users found of repeatedly infringing copyright should be cut off from the web – a suggestion the EU rejected.
The “Voluntarily ACTA Agreement” signed list so far:
Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States signed the ACTA on 1 Oct 2011. As of yesterday, they are joined by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom – 22 EU states.
