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New Lows In Neverending ACTA Corruption
Civil Liberties – Henrik Alexandersson
Civil Liberties – Henrik Alexandersson
The harshly criticized ACTA agreement (which, among other things, may result in severe limitations in the freedom of the net) has been reviewed by the Legal Services of the European Parliament. Rumors state that the resulting report is very critical of the agreement.
The report has been classified as restricted (meaning secret for all intents and purposes).
This is a translation of an article by Henrik “Hax” Alexandersson. The original is here.
A discussion about this report was announced for today’s meeting with the European Parliament’s committee for international trade, INTA.
Behind locked doors.
Of course, this led to protests — from Members of the European Parliament as well as from activists on the outside. Somebody got cold feet, and it was announced that the discussion had been postponed until the next meeting.
But late last night, INTA’s coordinators had a meeting — and decided to go anyway, on the meeting right this morning. (Which is to say: at the same time as all the “troublemakers” believe that the issue has been removed from the agenda.)
As the meeting started this morning, Carl Schlyter (Swedish Green Party) demanded that the meeting would be held in public. The demand was denied. So he demanded that the INTA committee would vote about opening the meeting to the public. Again, denied.
So. We have a controversial agreement on the table, with legislative effects. The analysis whether it is legal or not is kept secret. The discussion is held behind closed doors. Everybody who may have relevant objections is tricked into believing that the issue will not be discussed today. And when that happens anyway, the committee isn’t even allowed to vote whether the meeting is public or kept behind closed doors.
And then, our elected leaders wonder in concern and confusion what they should do about the democratic deficit in the European Union.
This is ridiculous! This is unworthy behavior in the democratic process!
About The Author: Henrik Alexandersson
Henrik Alexandersson works in the European Parliament as an assistant to Christian Engström, Pirate Member of European Parliament. He has a libertarian background and his blog focuses on such policy.
Democracy is dead in EU, and it’s just the beginning. Thanks God Switzerland is out of corrupted and bureaucratic EU and every major issue is voted on referendum.
You’re absolutely wrong if you think Switzerland is free of corruption. Corruption-light is even legal: Donations to politicians without concrete requests may be kept secret!
http://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/en/home/themen/kriminalitaet/korruption_greco.html
Obvious examples of corruption in Switzerland:
FIFA:
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/FIFA-corruption-scandal-timeline-article742755.html
UBS donations to CVP just before a delicate vote which would have affected the UBS (Corruption-light):
http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/schweiz/standard/Juso-wirft-CVP-und-UBS-Bestechung-vor/story/13800122
And WHY would donating money to politicians be “corruption-lite” if it isn’t public? Why should registering and even publishing someone’s political opinion be OK, just because they donated money to the politician or party in question?
A representative democracy (read: representatives being elected that in the end run the country and make decisions) is not a ‘real’ democracy to begin with.
In a democracy, it’s about the ‘will of the people’, not about the ‘will of the representatives of the people’.
Exactly who is responsible for this contemptible farce? Name and photo. Probable both politicians and bureaucrats. Short-term we must show what they do and in the interest of whom. Long-term we must cut them off from all power and influence.
Probably we will have to fight the EU as a place of power and turn back sovereignity to the local level. Many international agreements will have to be made obsolete because they are (like ACTA) hegemonic.
I voted for the EU membership and the euro. Now I am seriously worried that it is a Frankenstein.
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[...] esta semana a trabajar en la aprobación de ACTA de forma corrupta y oscura como acostumbran (lean a @HAX), esta sentencia de acuerdo La Quadrature du Net impactará todas la decisiones que se tomen de [...]
[...] esta semana a trabajar en la aprobación de ACTA de forma corrupta y oscura como acostumbran (lean a @HAX), esta sentencia de acuerdo La Quadrature du Net impactará todas la decisiones que se tomen de [...]
[...] esta semana a trabajar en la aprobación de ACTA de forma corrupta y oscura como acostumbran (lean a @HAX), esta sentencia de acuerdo La Quadrature du Net impactará todas la decisiones que se tomen de [...]