The GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament is sending its support to the millions of protestors, who will take to the streets tomorrow to demonstrate their opposition to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

The ACTA agreement aims to establish international standards for the enforcement of intellectual property rights but represents a major threat to internet freedom, freedom of speech, online privacy as well as agriculture in developing countries.

"The Left in Europe strongly opposes the proposed ACTA agreement" said GUE/NGL spokesperson on the issue, German MEP Helmut Scholz. "We certainly want to protect consumers from counterfeited goods or medicine, and we also acknowledge the need to protect the rights of the creative sector but we must find a way to do that without sacrificing privacy rights and data protection. ACTA is simply the wrong answer to this complex problem, and exposes citizens to the interests of large corporations in the software, film and music industry. We need a clear, transparent, inclusive and democratic procedure to protect fundamental rights for both consumers and producers".

Helmut Scholz recently wrote to EU Commissioner Karel De Gucht on the ACTA issue - click here for the text.

For details on protests see: http://webactionnow.com/ 

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:

David Lundy +32 485 50 58 12

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20

david.lundy@europarl.europa.eu

gabrielle.kavanagh@europarl.europa.eu

European United Left / Nordic Green Left

European Parliamentary Group

www.guengl.eu