September 30th, 2011 — Several of the “like-minded” States that negotiated the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will attend the signing ceremony this Saturday in Tokyo1. The European Parliament, which will have the final word, will now face its key responsibility towards European citizens: will it accept a text that forces new broadly applicable criminal sanctions, deeply impacting fundamental freedoms, innovation and competition? Will it seize the opportunity to reject once and for all a text that was negotiated outside democratic arenas?

• 1. http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/event/2011/9/0927_01.html

Paris, May 17th 2010 - On Tuesday May 18th, the Commission's Digital Agenda will be released. This important document will define the European Union's future policies on the Internet and other communications technologies. A leaked draft showed that major policy orientations remained to be arbitrated in advance of the release. Although much of the document puts forward very sensible and positive proposals, potential mentions of dogmatic copyright enforcement and Internet filtering could be sneaked in the final document at the last minute. Will the rights and freedoms of EU citizens be protected?

Strasbourg, May 17th 2010 - 185 signatures already, 184 left for an absolute majority! The Written Declaration 12 (WD12) on the ACTA agreement is still open for signatures from Members of the European Parliament (MEPs); it is now halfway completed. By setting red lines to the EU negotiators, it addresses key issues of the right to a fair trial and liability of Internet service providers. This week is a plenary week in Strasbourg, where MEPs will have an occasion to sign it.

Brussels, March 22nd, 2010 - With the current debates surrounding the Gallo Report on "Intellectual Property Rights" (IPR) enforcement1 and rumours about an imminent revival of the IPR criminal enforcement directive (IPRED2), a holy war is taking place in the European Parliament. Members of the Parliament are being flooded with false figures and statistics from the entertainment industries' intensive lobbying. They are also being heavily pressured by the French authorities. Will the European Parliament hear the cries of the Copyright Talibans and renounce to protect EU citizens fundamental freedoms?

• 1. The Gallo report will be debated on Tuesday, March 23rd in the JURI committee.

Next week, negotiating countries will meet for another round of talks on the infamous ACTA, which among other things aims at tackling the unauthorized sharing of cultural works over the Internet. In the past days, members of the European Commission sought to soothe parlementarians, public-interest groups and citizens by saying that the agreement would not go further than existing EU law.

Neelie Kroes, soon-to-be Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, commented the ACTA negotiations during her confirmation hearing on January 14th, saying that there will be no "harmonization by the back door". She also seemed to rule out any further harmonization of Intellectual Property Rights" (IPR) enforcement in Europe, and told reporters after the hearing that the "mere conduit" principle1 - a principle essential to Net neutrality and guaranteed by the e-Commerce directive - will be maintained.

But, as recent developements make clear, ACTA could severely impact Net neutrality and other founding principles of the Internet that ensure the proper exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms on the Internet, even without any change to EU law.

• 1. Mere conduit is guaranteed by article 12 of the 2002 e-Commerce directive. This principle sets a special liability regime for network operators by which they have no legal liability for the data transmitted via their networks

The European Parliament delegation led by Catherine Trautmann recently gave up on protecting EU citizens against arbitrary restrictions of their Internet access. In order to reach an agreement and avoid a clash with Member States, the Parliament retracted its support to the core element of notorious "amendment 138" : prior judicial decision before restrictions to access and usage of the Internet. This protection of citizens' fundamental rights against arbitrary restrictions of their Internet access came a long way. Here is a little restrospective on the "stations of the cross" of amendement 138.

(See also the rewording of amendment 138, preserving its core principles while adressing legal uncertainty, that was transmitted to MEPs last week)