Several EU Member States signed ACTA

Most of the 27 member states of the European Union signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on 26 January 2012 in Tokyo, joining the United States, Japan and other ACTA partners. However, several EU countries, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, The Netherlands and Slovakia, still have to sign the agreement.

The European Commission published a document intended to defuse scepticism about ACTA, available here. Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Kader Arif, the ACTA rapporteur of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade (INTA), stepped down from his duty in protest, calling the procedure to pass ACTA a “masquerade”. Also, a petition against ACTA has been created.

The European Parliament, according to the current timetable, is expected to vote on ACTA in May 2012. Only then is the European Union’s ratification of ACTA valid.