During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs debate with Karel DE GUCHT, European Commission, on the ongoing negotiations on the multilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

CASPARY, Daniel (EPP, DE)

ALBRECHT, Jan Philipp (Greens/EFA, DE)

ACTA (T)

DE GUCHT, Karel (LDR, BE, EC)

RINALDI, Niccolò (ALDE, IT)

ARIF, Kader (S&D, FR)

Ongoing negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA): extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Karel DE GUCHT, European Commissionner for Trade, The objective of ACTA is to address large scale onfringements of intellectual property rights which have a significant commercial impact.and it is not about controlling travellers on the content of their laptops or their computers. it will not lead to limitations of civil liberties or harassment of consumers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Karel DE GUCHT, European Commissionner for Trade, ACTA is only about enforcement of existing intellectual property rights.It will not include provisions modifying substantive intellectual property law. It whould set minimum rules on how innovators can enforce their rights in courts at the borders or over the Internet; for example, ACTA will ensure that fashion designers , artisits , or automobile manufacturer can see his rights adequatly safegarded when confronted with couterfeiting of his creations outside Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Karel DE GUCHT, European Commissionner for Trade, We will make sure that ACTA does not hamper the access to generic medicines. there is now clear language in the draft text ensuring that ACTA will not serve as a base to interfere with the trade in generic medicines. ACTA will be consistent with the declaration of TRIPS and public Health of 2001 whilst the obligations on border control which is the most sensitive issue as regard access to medicines will not apply to patterns.

SOUNDBITE (English), Karel DE GUCHT, European Commissionner for Trade, Regretably in the last two rounds it has been made clear that the consesnsus including oall the ACTA parties will only be reached on the basis of the lowest common denominator... on the Internet which is one of the pmost sensitive but also one of the most inovative chapters of ACTA there was a considerable step back in the last round with the parties unable to agree on a common liability exemption regime for Internet service providers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Karel DE GUCHT, European Commissionner for Trade, For the EU interest relates to which propoerty rights will be covered by the agreements, The EU has a wide and diversified basis of right holders , a farmers producing geographical indications or the textile company creating designs are also wictims of counterfeiting and also need to be covered by better enforcement rules. the problem is that several of our partners insist that only copyright and trademarks deserve to be included in ACTA. We strongly disagree and we will push for this offensive EU interests to be respected.

SOUNDBITE (German), Daniel CASPARY (EPP, DE), I believe that Champagne and Tyrolien cheese are as protected in the same ways as coca cola or kellogs cornflakes and here I would call on the USA to get rid of its opposition to the publication of the text. transparency is clearly an advantage that can help move the agreement forward.

SOUNDBITE (French), Kader ARIF (S&amp;D, FR), We're trying to fight counterfeit goods but we must not use this to take these things beyond the TRIPS agreement and the provisions that are in. Another important thing Safeguards:let's make no confusion between generic medicines and counterfeit medecines.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Niccol&#242; RINALDI (ALDE, IT), We know that 64 % of counterfeited products come from China and China is not a member of ACTA so we need to assess whether it is worthwhile doing this.

SOUNDBITE (German), Jan Philipp ALBRECHT (Greens/EFA, DE), We don't want the inplementation to happen in any kind of fragmented way now this allows for legitimate repesentives of the State to intervene in people private lives.