Text 7187, 89 rader
Skriven 2010-04-18 12:57:35 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
   Kommentar till text 7166 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: ACTA                              Was: WMDs uncovered ... at last .
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18 Apr 10 09:25, Ward Dossche wrote to Roy Witt:


 RW>> WD> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_dc_munitions_dig

 RW>> One of the biggest issues in discussing ACTA is the rampant secrecy
 RW>> behind the negotiations.

 WD> What a leap ... going from an accidental old ammunitions find to
 WD> intellectual property rights. Now I understand why it is possible in
 WD> your country to tack a non-related issue to a bill in Congress and
 WD> get something ushered through that has nothing to do with the matter
 WD> at hand.

Like your munitions-dig, just something out of the blue.

 RW>> We've heard calls from many different politicians to get rid of the
 RW>> secrecy and be more transparent, but we hadn't heard who was against
 RW>> the transparency (other than some industry lobbyists who, in theory,
 RW>> shouldn't have much say in this). The only statement came from the
 RW>> USTR, who claimed that countries would leave the negotiating table
 RW>> if the text were made public -- but wouldn't say who or why.

 RW>> Well, now we know who. A leaked document highlights which countries
 RW>> are against transparency and the list includes Belgium, Portugal,
 RW>> Germany, Denmark, South Korea and Singapore.

 WD> The ACTA treaty indeed is conducted behind closed doors and is not
 WD> part of any international organization.

 WD> The participating parties on a regular basis are the USA, the
 WD> European Commission, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Canada, Jordan,
 WD> Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, and
 WD> United Arab Emirates.

 WD> I don't see for example Belgium's name on the list of participants.
 WD> Neither do I see Portugal, Germany nor Denmark.

Look a little closer.

"The European Commission organised a stakeholders' consultation meeting on
23 June in Brussels, open to all members"

European Commission members are listed in alphabetical order and Belgum
comes second after Austria. Belgum represented by Yves Leterme, the Belgum
Prime Minister.

 WD> The reason is quite simple ... the European Commission participates
 WD> and as long as you don't understand how that functions, there's
 WD> little necessity of discussing that any further. Every 6 months it is
 WD> chaired by another country and because a certain country chairs, does
 WD> not means it supports.

On the contrary, the EC has 27 Commissioners from each state in the Union.
Belgum being a member of the Union and having a Commisioner present at the
Commision meetings means that Belgum and the other countries mentioned are
participants.

 WD> Having said that, ACTA hopefully/probably will never make it through
 WD> the European Parliament if ever it reaches that stage.

It has...

 WD> In late 2008 the EP adopted a highly critical resolution with 309
 WD> against 232 votes. And on March 10th 2010, the EP adopted another
 WD> resolution criticising ACTA with 663 in favor and 13 against. I think
 WD> Björn even reported that in these pages.

 WD> If my country in any way can contribute to the crashing of anything
 WD> as ridiculous as ACTA, which obviously is an initiative by the music
 WD> industry, which eventually will allow random searches of private
 WD> houses without a warrant, then for once I will be proud of my
 WD> government.

Since governments are always looking for a way to squeeze more money out
of the peons, that won't happen.

 WD> Bottom line ... neither Belgium nor Germany nor Portugal nor Denmark
 WD> participate in these negotiations. At some point over the years they
 WD> carried the Presidency of the EU but did not represent their country.
 WD> First you need to understand that.

A diversion that didn't work. Of course Belgum and the rest are involved.

                R\%/itt

    You can put lipstick on a pig, but the pig still stinks!
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