Greens/EFA MEPs Engström, Sargentini, Beliér, Albrecht ask question on ACTA and Vienna Convention

Four Green/EFA MEPs (from four parties and four countries) have asked a follow-up question on ACTA and the Vienna Connection, trying to get at the “is the US bound?” issue.

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Greens/EFA MEPs Christian Engström, Judith Sargentini, Sandrine Beliér and Jan Albrecht have asked the European Commission this follow-up question on ACTA and Vienna Convention:

In Question for written answer to the Commission P-9179/2010, Françoise Castex (SD/FR) asked: “Could the Commission clarify to what degree ACTA is a binding or voluntary agreement, given that the US apparently does not believe its laws must be consistent with ACTA?”.

The Commission answered: “The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a binding international agreement on all its parties, as defined and subject to the rules of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969).”

Is the Commission aware the United States did not ratify the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties?

The question was a follow-up to this earlier response to MEP Françoise Castex by Kark De Gucht.

At this point, the US Congress considers ACTA a political agreement, that is not binding on the US. The US has no intention of amending its copyright and trademark laws to be consistent with ACTA, and will consider legislative proposals that are inconsistent, such as to address access to orphaned copyrighted works. The European Commission is aware of this, but prefers to provide misleading communications to the European Parliament, in order to obtain ACTA approval by the Parliament.

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