ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TRADE AGREEMENT : PARLIAMENT COULD ALSO REFER ACTA TO COURT.

British MEP David Martin (S&D), rapporteur on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), said, on 28 February, that he intends to recommend that the European Parliament refer a question to the EU Court of Justice on the conformity of the agreement. This would be on top of the referral from the European Commission.

On the same day, a petition signed by nearly 2.5 million people to protest against the ACTA was filed at the EP - which has not yet approved the text.

"I think that the EP should ask its own questions to the Court of Justice," said the MEP. These questions would thus be different from those the Commission is likely to ask. Indeed, a few days ago the Commission announced its intention to ask the court for an opinion.

Nevertheless, the court's judgement "does not mean that we will approve the ACTA," Martin added, stressing the fact that the final decision would be "political". The objective is more to "try to go beyond the vague aspect of the text," not so much in terms of its...