ACTA again
timesofmalta.com, this afternoon:
BUSUTTIL CHASTISES COMMISSION FOR ITS HANDLING OF ACTA
MEP Simon Busuttil today chastised the European Commission for its handling of the Acta dossier.
“Unless the commission addresses its public communications strategy to explain this agreement thoroughly, then Acta is as good as dead.
“Tthe public debate on Acta has been poisoned by sheer misinformation, by undue politicisation and by the failure of the European Commission to communicate the agreement properly,” Dr Busuttil said.
He said it was clear that unless the Commission addressed serious concerns on Acta in a satisfactory manner, it was likely that the Civil Liberties Committee, in which Dr Busuttil is the EPP spokesman, would vote against the agreement.
Speaking during the first exchange of views on the controversial anti-counterfeiting trade agreement at the European Parliament in Brussels, Dr Busuttil stated that, in principle, he supported an agreement that fought counterfeiting and piracy, as Acta sought to do.
However, the commission had to first address serious concerns raised on the agreement with respect to civil liberties and possible restrictions on internet freedom.
3 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
I am still disapponted in Simon as he seems as if he is trying to prop up something that is intrinsically bad. If the EC, for suspect reasons, want to pass questionable legislation, his brief, as I see it, is to stop it, and not to advise the EC to sweeten, or mask, the deal.
Dr. Busuttil has taken a nosedive in my esteem and I deem his latest statements as damage-control.
The secrecy which enshrouded the proposed deal and the sheer amount of opacity in much of the legislative text has, in my opinion, condemned the proposal to a certain death.
Although Dr. Busuttil’s statement is quite right now, he cannot run with the fox and hunt with the pack and a quick re-think of his involvement seems to be the wise way ahead.
This time he is absolutely right in his statement. ACTA have become the holy grail of bad PR.