Bulgaria Refuses to Withdraw ACTA Signature

Bulgaria's Parliament rejected a proposal that would have obliged the government to withdraw its signature from the controversial ACTA agreement.

The proposal was made by the oppositional far-right Ataka (Attack) and was supported by left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party and right-wing Blue Coalition, both in opposition.

However, the MPs with the ruling centrist-right GERB decided to abstain from voting.

Bulgarian Socialist Party lawmaker Petar Korumbashev reminded that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov promised to deliberately present the agreement to the Parliament in order to see it scrapped by the MPs.

GERB already suspended the ratification of ACTA in the national Parliament and instructed all its MEPs to vote against the international agreement.

On January 26, 2012, the Bulgarian government signed in Tokyo the international ACTA agreement that would make downloading content similar to forgery of brands.

The agreement was sealed by Bulgarian ambassador to Japan Lyubomir Todorov, based on a decision by the Bulgarian cabinet taken hastily on January 11. Bulgarians were kept in the dark about the decision.

After protests took place in 16 Bulgarian cities in mid-February, the government announced that it is halting the ratification.

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