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The EC has produced a Proposal for a Council Decision recommending against further review of ACTA before it is passed by the European Parliament.  The document opens with an explanatory memo noting that “the Commission has opted not to propose that the European Union exercise its potential competence in the area of criminal enforcement pursuant to Article 83(2) TFEU. The Commission considers this appropriate because it has never been the intention, as regards the negotiation of ACTA to modify the EU acquis or to harmonise EU legislation as regards criminal enforcement of intellectual property rights. For this reason, the Commission proposes that ACTA be signed and concluded both by the EU and by all the Member States.”

Many observers would disagree the assertion that there is no conflict between ACTA and EU law. For instance, on February 7, a group of X European scholars issued an opinion stating that “Contrary to the European Commission’s repeated statements and the European Parliament’s resolution of 24 November 2010, certain ACTA provisions are not entirely compatible with EU law and will directly or indirectly require additional action on the EU level.”  The opinion goes on to list 11 areas of conflict.

Original Documents

• Proposal for a Council Decision on the Conclusion of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. June 26, 2011.
• Opinion of European Academics on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. February 7, 2011.

Blogs:

• Mike Masnick, Techdirt. EU Trying to Push Through ACTA Without Much Scrutiny
• André Rebentisch, Sköne Oke. Council to sign ACTA the cynical way. June 29, 2011.