While our beloved readers from the United States celebrate their independence (have a good one, guys and girls), the European Parliament has just voted against ACTA with an absolutely overwhelming majority: 478 against ACTA, 39 in favour (and 165 abstentions). I’m raising a coffee to this one, kids.
The responsible commissoner De Gucht already said 14 days ago that he would ignore any parliament decision and only accept the European Court decision. A rejection through the court will just initiate a new, ammended version. ACTA is not over yet. See De Guchts statement in front of the parliament: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/12/4…
BTW, I submitted this 14 days ago.
The new ACTA would have the slogan:
“Democracy you MUST agree with!”
Democracy is non-negotiable.
haha, funniest thing i read all year!
Also: embrace democracy or you will be eradicated!
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=298Cw3_qGwE though ~”democracy is truth, communism is death!” is missing)
Democracy: the ONLY option
Democracy: you have no choice
Democracy is mandatory
To have it work better, the definition needs to be tweaked. Eventually a better word will (hopefully) emerge…
Democranism: Government of the party, by the party, against the people.
Democranny? Democratism? Democrazy, Democracism, Democraship. Sounds scary…
Democorporatism.
I’ve been thinking for a while what we’re really moving towards is back to feudalism. Corporations are the new nobility divinely ordained by the invisible hand to rule over their market because the peasantry obviously can’t handle the economy.
Well, this one is pretty much correct… (with “me, me, me!” drive to own more “stuff” and to have fun in the few short prime decades, the inability to see and support long-term issues)
Of course, corporations don’t exactly improve on that (unless – shudder – planet-wide megacorp, so hopefully with organisational priority of sustainable self-preservation? O_o )
Of course, but it’s the hypocrisy that’s the problem. Corporations are all about “free market” and “competition”, but only for big corporations to squash smaller competitors.
Again (continuing the ~comparison) – as opposed to the principled honesty of typical peasantry representative?!
Seems like corporations largely just reflect us…
iDemocracy
Good one… in then still USSR during the Gorbachev times, around late 80’s, there used to be a saying: “regarding the pluralism of views there cannot be any difference of opinion”…
I don’t get it. If the commissioner can ignore parliament’s decision, what purpose does the parliament serve?
It’s to fool the masses into thinking they have a say in the government, of course.
I guess my short blurb was misleading. What De Gucht meant was that he will start a new attempt to get ACTA (modified or not) ratified after the European Court decided on the compatibility of ACTA with the EU body of law, whatever the parliament decides now. That’s within the law and not very different from what is happening in normal national legislation. OK, normally failed laws are dropped or sneaked in as a hidden addendum to some other legislation. De Gucht chose to be more defiant or maybe ACTA is just too big to ride on the undercard.
To explain the EU setup post-Lisboa would be a little much at this point, but here is a very short version: the commission is roughly the executive branch while the parliament is the legislative branch. To create a law the commission must suggest it and the parliament must confirm it. De Gucht is one of 27 commissioners (1 commissioner per EU member). The commission is assembled by the 1st commisioner, currently Barroso, and confirmed by the parliament. One term is 4 years and the current term ends 2014. Once assembled, only the 1st commisioner can dismss another commissioner. So to get rid if De Gucht pester Barroso. You can contact him over his website: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/president/index_en.htm
Edited 2012-07-04 17:30 UTC
Yeah, sure, because Barroso the ultra-liberal, ultra-atlantist guy is going to rmemove De Gucht over ACTA ?
I didn’t say it would work, but that’s one of two ways how you can get rid of a commissioner. The other is to fully replace the *whole* commission through a vote of no confidence by the parliament. Sounds more likely? Didn’t think so.
What’s an ultra-atlantist? Someone who wants to find Atantis?
Maybe the other way, someone who wants to sink more large stuff?
He cannot ignore the decision, he still need a positive decision to enact it. However, he can indefinitely resubmit a directive for vote to the parliament. It usually never happen without a significant change to the directive. In this case, he consider that the parliament is misinformed, and that the parliament would change its opinion after the ruling from the European Court of Justice.
Well that is how the EU Democracy works. The Commission is un elected by the people and on the payroll or big corporates. They decide what they want and even if the vote goes against them they either ignore it or demand another vote, and another, and another… Until they get the answer they want, as happened in Ireland.
You may have submitted that some time ago but it wasn’t until yesterday that the EP has officially voted.
Also, the EC has indeed indicated they will indeed pursue ACTA further, but at the moment this entails bringing it before the European Court of Justice. All they can do it tell the EC whether or not ACTA is within the confines of the European legal framework. The ECJ is not a legislative body. It will still have to go through the EP, thanks to the Lisbon Treaty.
Please get your facts straight.
Would love to know if any of them is from my country so next election I can remind everyone what kind of dip sh*ts they really are.
Anyone with the list?
http://tinyurl.com/bnfmglz
Scroll down for the hall of shame.
A majority of them are french, 17 from the previous government’s party.
While I’m not proud of that, I’m proud that half the shame goes on these ones…
There you go: http://www.votewatch.eu/cx_vote_details.php?id_act=3055&lang=en
Any good/bad surprises?
Wow half the yes votes were from France, I feel ashamed -_-
Don’t be, they all come from the UMP (right-wing party). And considering who that party is sending to the EU parliament, it should not come as a surprise either.
don’t forget iPRED
same shit, different name
No iPRED is very different in many aspect. First of all, being a directive means it has been discussed in public, with debate in the parliament and within the society, ACTA was completely discussed behind closed door, and only made publicly available when all discussions where finished.
And also, iPRED can be changed by a new directive, while ACTA is set in hard-rock stone. Which is the point of ACTA. Quoting De Gucht This is because we do not have to modify any part of our internal legislation, the so-called acquis communautaire. What is legal today in the European Union, will remain legal tomorrow once ACTA is ratified. And what is illegal today will remain illegal tomorrow.. And that is the crucial point, ACTA does not change anything today, but it does prevent any kind of improvement to iPRED.
As someone from the U.S. that was hoping ACTA would fail, I just want to say, thank you!