Last week, Poland and Slovenia expressed regret over the signing of ACTA. Now the Czech Republic and Romania have expressed the same doubts. Czech Prime Minister, Petr Necas, has stated that the Czech Republic will suspend the ratification process of ACTA.
“By no means would the government admit a situation where civic freedoms and free access to information would be threatened,” Necas said.
That is why the government will analyse the issue and have it assessed by experts. “We really must look into the impact it would have in real life,” Necas said.
After learning that their country had signed ACTA, many citizens of the Czech republic took to the streets in protest . Also agreeing with the protesters are several Czech Euro ministers.
Romanian Prime Minister, Emil Boc, has publically stated that he doesn’t understand why Romania even signed ACTA. Emil Boc offered his resignation shortly after, however, the president is still asking questions.
PM Emil Boc said, on Saturday, that, for the moment, he did not hold any information on the circumstances in which Romania had adopted the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Realitatea.net informs. PSD President Victor Ponta is asking the government to publicly explain why it had signed ACTA on behalf of Romania without a prior public debate and notes that, when it goes to power, USL will suspend the enforcement of the Agreement until a dialogue with the civil society is fulfilled, he notes on his Facebook account.
This is what happens when treaties are proposed and signed in secret. Even those at the top levels of government have no idea what is happening in their countries or how such treaties will affect their citizens.
ACTA is still a very real problem and the countries involved need to take a serious look at what it is and whether they really want to be involved by informing themselves about what ACTA really is.
