BRATISLAVA, February 6, (WEBNOVINY) – Economy Minister Juraj Miskov halted the legislation process of the international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). “The ACTA agreement and its application contains many inaccuracies and thus poses potential risks of creating an undesirable situation. I will not support an agreement which could in any way curtail fundamental human rights and freedoms,” Miskov explained his position.
The minister therefore decided to initiate an open public dialogue on the issue. “Our priority is to first communicate, listen and only then to consider further actions. We want to prevent adopting treaties which might curb basic human rights and freedoms,” informed Miskov.
Strongest opposition party SMER-SD has already voiced its disapproval of the current version of ACTA. As its chairman Robert Fico said at a news conference earlier on Monday, the ACTA in its current form cannot be ratified in Slovakia. SMER’s MEP Monika Flasikova-Benova also underlined the fact that the process of ACTA elaboration was nontransparent from the beginning. After the work on ACTA was launched in 2008, it was only delivered to the European Parliament in summer 2011 and did not contain protocols which regulate its implementation. The protocols remain secret to date. Three European parliament committees are scheduled to discuss the treaty in February; the plenum should take a position in June. Flasikova-Benova says that more and more MEPs, mainly Socialists, Greens and Liberals, oppose ACTA and she hopes it would be rejected as a whole.
The objective of ACTA is, similarly to U.S. SOPA treaty, to fight the dissemination of illegal copies and fakes of audio-visual records, designer clothes, drugs, etc. and make prosecution of those accused of internet piracy much easier than it is today. ACTA, however, contains many controversial provisions which might lead to restricting individual freedoms, internet censorship and harassment at the borders. The most often mentioned problem is that authorities would be allowed to search any travelers‘ computers, cell phones or audio players for illegal contents at state borders.
Representatives of 22 EU states signed ACTA in Tokyo on January 26. They joined the U.S., Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Morocco, which ratified the agreement in October 2011. ACTA is not yet legally binding. The respective measures require the approval of the European Parliament. Slovakia is among the countries that have not yet signed ACTA; after public protests, both Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas halted the process of ACTA ratification in their countries.
SITA