European parliament’s ACTA monitor quits in protest

The European Parliament’s independent monitor for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) resigned Jan 27 in protest after 22 European Union member states signed the anti-piracy treaty the day before.

Kader Arif said that he condemns “the whole process which led to the signature of this agreement: no consultation of the civil society, lack of transparency since the beginning of negotiations, repeated delays of the signature of the text without any explanation give, reject of Parliament’s recommendations as given in several resolutions of our assembly.”