The European Commission  invites lobbyists to a meeting on ACTA. Meanwhile,  the Internet service providers finally step out in opposition, so the meeting could be interesting. 

The European  Commission has announced a public 'stakeholders' meeting on ACTA (Anti-counterfeiting trade agreement) in March. Whilst this has the veneer of a consultation, it is in fact, not 

 so open as it might seem. In my experience, there is plenty of room for manipulation of these meetings, and it is to be expected that the speakers will be limited in what they can say, especially those who oppose ACTA.

It should be noted too, that this is not the Parliament. This is a lobbyists meeting at the Commission.

The call yesterday for transparency for the Parliament is more important, because the Parliament  should have  oversight of anything which will have legislative implications for Europe. 

Meanwhile EuroISPA   has spoken out against ACTA, joining its fellow trade association, ETNO in opposing the moves on ISP liability and requests to sanction users by suspension and disconnection of access.

In a statement, EuroISPA calls again on European institutions to ensure that no measures could be proposed that could lead to graduated response, criminal sanctions, US-style notice and take down and, indirectly, generalised monitoring of Internet traffic and service.

EuroISPA reminds the Commission to respect the acquis communitaire for telecommunications, as amended only last year in the Telecoms Package, and in particular, of the final agreement on Amendment 138. 

Details of the ACTA Stakeholders Consultation Meeting 

Date: Monday 22nd March 2010

Time: 10.00 – 12:30 Location: Charlemagne Building, Room Alcide de Gaspieri - Rue de la Loi, 170 B-1049 Brussels

To register for the meeting, and for more information, go to DG Trade website ACTA - Stakeholders Consultation Meeting 

**Michael Geist has another leaked document which seems to show that several EU Member States, including Denmark and Germany, are opposed to the public release of ACTA documents. 

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial-Share Alike 2.5 UK:England and Wales License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ It may be used for non-commercial purposes only, and the author's name should be attributed. The correct attribution for this article is: Monica Horten  (2010) EU Commission public meeting on ACTA http://www.iptegrity.com 25 February 2010