On Thursday, the 21st of June, the Euro-deputies of the International Trade committee (INTA) will have to take a stand on the ratification of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). They must vote AGAINST. It is the life of hundred thousand of people that is at stake. It is the fundamental freedoms of each citizen that are at stake. It is the legitimacy of the European Parliament that is at stake.
By establishing a confusion between legitimate generics and counterfeit medicines, ACTA will allow their seizure and destruction.
Though these generics enable hundred thousand of people living with HIV to access treatment and save their life. ACTA will endanger access to medicine programs over the world. ACTA will kill. ACTA will jeopardize civil liberties.
We raised concern about this for more than three years.
We worked to put this agreement under citizen control, although its negociators have tried to keep it secret.
Confronted to popular protests, the Commission referred the text to the European Court of Justice with the aim of bypassing the public discussion. The EPP (European People’s Party) is now claiming for a deferment of the European Parliament’s vote until the Court’s decision.
Those undemocratic strategies have to be ended : it is the responsibility of political representatives to take stand on an agreement that will deeply affect the lives of citizens.
