MEPs must be ready to reject an ACTA-like Canada/EU Trade Agreement

Paris, October 2nd 2012 – Ahead of the next round of negotiations of CETA, the Canada/EU Trade Agreement¹This coming October 15th to October 26th in Brussels., La Quadrature du Net publishes its dedicated web-dossier. The citizen organization urges the Members of the European Parliament to demand full transparency and be ready to reject CETA as they did with ACTA, if any of the anti-Internet, anti-citizens’ freedoms provisions remain in the final agreement.

Once again, the EU Commission is trying to bypass the democratic process by imposing general measures against freedoms online in a trade agreement. Although Commissioner De Gucht’s asserts that ACTA measures are not present in current CETA draft anymore, this is a proof-less assertion, as the negotiators are keeping relevant documents secret. The latest leak – dated February 2012 – contains the exact same anti-citizen provisions as ACTA, pushed by both Canada and the EU.

La Quadrature du Net publishes its CETA web-dossier and urges Members of the European Parliament to stand, once more, against the Commission’s shameful attempts to bypass the democratic process. MEPs are invited to demand the Commission publishes the current text of CETA, before the next round of negotiations in Brussels from October 15th to October 26th, even more so as negotiators claim it will be the final round.

If any of the ACTA provisions threatening a free Internet and users’ freedoms online are still present in the current text, MEPs must give guarantees to EU citizens that they will honour their past commitment and reject CETA.

“Apparently the EU Commission didn’t learn from its tremendous defeat last July on ACTA. It seems that Commissioner De Gucht is once again hiding key information from citizens and MEPs and trying to bypass the democratic processes with CETA in order to impose repressive measures. MEPs must stick to their courageous position against ACTA, and reject CETA as a whole if ACTA-like provisions are present in the final agreement.” declared Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder and spokesperson of the citizen organisation La Quadrature du Net.