By a remarkable vote of 633 to 13, the Parliament rebuked European negotiators who have been drafting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in a series of confidential meetings around the globe. No version of the document has been disclosed by the participants, which include the United States, the European Commission, Japan, and Canada.

Members of the Parliament must live up to their responsibility to protect EU citizens and listen to their uproar against ACTA. What this means is refusing any Parliamentarian referral to the ECJ and continuing their work towards a clear and strong rejection of ACTA.”,

The referral to the Court of Justice is clearly intended by ACTA proponents as a way to buy time in face of the strong opposition to ACTA. The EU Parliament must therefore proceed immediately and formulate its own reasons for rejecting ACTA.

ACTA aims at circumventing democracy to impose now and later repressive legislation through secret negotiations. The European Parliament now has a unique occasion to firmly oppose it.

Today 377 members of the European Parliament adopted a written declaration on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in which they demand greater transparency, assert that ISPs should not up end being liable for data sent through their networks, and say that ACTA "should not force limitations upon judicial due process

The ratification process in the Parliament is already characterized by the absence of transparency. The EU Parliament has refused to publish its legal services' full opinion on ACTA, saying that it would “seriously interfere with the complex ratification process”.

As a result of the copyright lobbies' noxious influence, ACTA still includes a set of measures for stepping up the war on the sharing of culture over the Internet.

"On June 6th the members of the European Parliament for the 2009-1014 period will be elected by the citizens of the 27 member countries. Shortly after this, the new representatives will start a new round of negotiations of the infamous Telecom package. If you are a citizen of one of the member countries, we ask you to consider the position of the different parties before casting your vote..."

At a time when the EU Commission investigates the anti-competitive behaviour of a market-dominant player, the European Parliament (EP) still imposes that same specific software choice on both the European Union's citizens and its own MEPs.