The Croatian government does not have an official position on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at the moment and is not considering acceding to this international agreement, nor has anyone asked it to do so, Stribor Kikerec of the Foreign and European Affairs Ministry said at a round-table discussion in Zagreb on Monday.
The discussion was initiated by civil society organisations and media which believe that the signatories to this controversial agreement want to incorporate it into their legislative frameworks and use it for the criminal prosecution of counterfeiting of goods or generic drugs and for copyright protection on the Internet. They say that the agreement "muddies the water" and gives rise to possible abuses during its implementation.
"The question is how things will develop and whether the agreement will come on the government's agenda or not, and right now no one can say that," Kikerec said.
Recalling that the agreement was signed by 22 EU countries late last year, Kikerec said that its signing had provoked an angry response from the public, which had confused some of the EU political leaders. He said that the European Parliament was deeply divided over the agreement and that it was most strongly defended by the European Commission which he said wanted to convince the public that it was not a problematic agreement. "There is a sort of conflict going on between the European Commission and the European Parliament over ACTA," he added.
Arguing against the signing of ACTA, Tomislav Medak of the Multimedia Institute said that the agreement violated legal standards and affected the availability of goods, such as generic drugs, and the quality of education in less developed countries.
