Yesterday, as it was expected, the European Parliament rejected the ACTA. We have been posting about critical approach of all the commissions who have examined it, so the final verdict was basically just a formality. What may be interesting to notice is that by rejecting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the European Parliament for the first time ever exercised its Lisbon Treaty power to reject an international trade agreement. With only 39 of the MEPs voting for adoption of the ACTA, it had no chance to become law in the EU (165 MEPs abstained in protest of the Parliament deciding to take a vote before the verdict of the CJEU on the constitutionality of the ACTA).
It should be stressed that the possibility of adoption of the ACTA had mobilised many European citizens to actually get involved in the legislation process by starting a heavy lobbying of the MEPs. I wonder whether that means that times are a-changing and that we could expect in the future more citizen involvement in the works of the European institutions. (European Parliament rejects ACTA)
