He stated that; “The attempt to tackle infringement of intellectual property rights on the internet was done in a very short sighted way. This is a serious subject that needs to be dealt with, however ACTA is not the right place, ACTA is not the right tool and this is not the right way to deal with this issue”. The PES President called on the European Parliament to vote down the agreement at its plenary session in June.
Mr. Stanishev spoke after representatives from the business community, including European employers organisation, Business Europe had attempted to present the case for the agreement.
The PES President dismissed the claims of the employers’ organisation, stating that the proposal was unwanted because it infringed so clearly on basic freedoms of individuals and unneeded because there were already sufficient protections against international counterfeiting.
Mr. Stanishev noted that the recently leaked non-paper from the G8 dealing with Intellectual Property Rights Protection, would indicate that high-level decision makers had already conceded that ACTA was ‘dead’. He expressed unease on the contents of the non-paper which continued to advocate ‘snooping’ powers for internet providers, and questioned whether any lessons had been learned from the mistakes of the ACTA drafting process.
