Following the wide-ranging discussions in the European Parliament this week on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which has been referred to the EU Court of Justice by the European Commission, German GUE/NGL MEP Helmut Scholz, who is a Member of the Committee on International Trade, said he had no doubt that the debate on ACTA will continue despite the Commission's delaying tactics.

"By referring ACTA to the EU Court of Justice, the Commission is trying to slow down the debate on the highly controversial Agreement," he said. "But their delaying tactics won't stop the beat - we, the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, will do our utmost to support the broad alliance of those who are protesting about the dangers of ACTA."

MEP Scholz continued by saying that whereas ACTA had been negotiated behind closed doors, "we are calling for greater transparency together with civil society. Let's use the upcoming months to inform people about the dangers of ACTA and transform the successful protest of the past months into a participatory democratic process."

A workshop on ACTA is being held today in the European Parliament. "Commissioner De Gucht will be participating and reminding us once more of the good things about ACTA. We shall be reminding him in return of the blessings of freedom of expression in a living democracy and we will make clear that our group will not join the Commission's line dance,"  MEP Scholz concluded.

GUE/NGL press contacts:

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20

gabrielle.kavanagh@europarl.europa.eu 

Sonja Giese  +32 486 94 50 21

sonja.giese@europarl.europa.eu

David Lundy +32 485 50 58 12

david.lundy@europarl.europa.eu