Polish Protests Put ACTA ‘On Hold’
Last week the European Union has officially signed the controversial “anti-piracy” trade agreement ACTA.
This brings ACTA a step closer to passing, but individual EU Member States and the European Parliament still have to ratify ACTA later this year.
But this may not happen. All across Europe people are opposing the secret treaty, and in Poland alone more than 100,000 people took the streets in recent days.
Not without result, as the Polish Prime Minister now appears to change his pro-ACTA stance.
Tusk’s backtracking could spell the end of ACTA for the entire European Union. If Poland or any other EU member state, or the European Parliament itself, fails to ratify the document, it becomes null and void across the union. As it stands, there are already five member countries that have not even signed ACTA.
“I share the opinions of those who from the beginning said that consultations were not complete,” Tusk said, according to a report in Wirtualna Polska. The 54-year-old prime minister added that a Polish rejection of ACTA is now on the table, and admitted that he had previously approached the agreement from a “20th century” perspective, due to his age.
While this is no guarantee that ACTA will be stopped, the change of tone is certainly a glimmer of hope for the position.
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