Strasbourg, June 14th 2010 – Only two weeks of plenary in Strasbourg are left for Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to have a chance to sign Written Declaration 12 (WD12) on ACTA. 150 signatures are still missing, mostly from Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, and Poland. Every EU citizen is encouraged to call Strasbourg offices of non-signatories MEPs until thursday, 12:00, to urge them to sign WD12.
Two plenaries left (in red)
to complete WD12
A few weeks from the next round of negotiations, completing Written Declaration 12 with the 369 required signatures would send a strong signal to the negotiators about the commitment of the Parliament to protect EU citizens’ freedoms.
Only during the plenary weeks of June 14-17 and July 5-8 the MEPs will have an occasion to pass by the written declarations table, on their way to the plenary, to sign WD12 (at 12:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the vote sessions, where every MEP should be present). It is therefore crucial that they are properly informed about the importance of signing it, right before moving to the plenary.
150 signatures are still missing. Every EU citizen who would like to help fight ACTA is thus encouraged to call Strasbourg offices of non-signatories MEPs until thursday, 12:00. You can convince them with the following arguments:
- WD12 goes further than resolution voted on March 10th, by addressing core fundamental rights issues with the content of the agreement itself: right to a fair trial / liability of internet service providers, which would turn them into private copyright police (with a high impact on freedom of expression and privacy).
- Basic political arguments such as: “Mr/Mrs X or Y, chief of your delegation / president or vice-president of your political group, has signed it already.” It is sometimes the strongest argument!
The following resources are available to help you:
- A dedicated campaign page translated in Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, updated with arguments and tips for contacting MEPs.
- A list of signatories, updated as often as possible, with statistics per country and per political groups.
- “calling rooms” where info can be updated in realtime about feedback from the contacted offices and tips: one for Member States from Austria to Italy, one from Latvia to United Kingdom, and one dedicated to francophone countries.
- A dedicated IRC chat channel, where volunteers can discuss and coordinate: irc://irc.freenode.net/#lqdn-wd12, accessible via the web.
Citizens are also encouraged to use their contacts with MEPs offices to alert them about the dangerous WD29 which tricked many of them.
“Let’s show that when EU citizens act together they can really make a difference. We have an occasion to have an impact on ACTA so Europe would protect our fundamental freedoms instead of attacking them. We can make it!” concludes Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.