1815 GMT: Eighteen members of the European Parliament have called on the European Union to hold the Bahrain government accountable over current and historic human rights violations, with targeted sanctions to follow if a strict deadline for reform is not met.

In a letter to Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, the MEPs noted Saturday’s arrest of Nabeel Rajab as “only the latest escalation of the increasingly repressive policy by the Bahraini government against the opposition movement”

The letter, initiated by Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake, continues:

It is high time the EU speaks out against the ongoing repression of the opposition and violation of human rights. In its resolution of 15 March 2012 on human rights violations in Bahrain the Parliament called for “the immediate and unconditional release of all peaceful demonstrators, political activists, human rights defenders, doctors and paramedics, bloggers and journalists” and urged you to “hold the Bahraini Government to its promises to respect human rights, implement the necessary reforms, start independent investigations into human rights violations and ensure that those responsible are held to account.”

We urge you to reiterate this call and hold the Bahraini Government to its promises, and to set a clear deadline to be met in order to prevent serious consequences. We call on you to prepare a set of targeted restrictive measures, including; a formal ban on the export of all military equipment (in particular tear gas), to ensure that no military equipment is sold or exported from within the EU to Bahrain; visa bans and asset freezes for those individuals responsible for the violent repression of peaceful protestors. It is essential for the EU’s credibility in the region to show that the EU has a consistent policy towards governments violating their citizens’ human rights.

Opponents of Acta, the controversial anti-counterfeiting treaty up for vote in the European Parliament in July, say, among other things, that it would stifle innovation. Advocates say the exact opposite.

According to the text of the treaty, its sole purpose is to protect the right to intellectual property and, thereby, innovation. People would not make new products if these could easily be copied and distributed without payment.

“The parties to this agreement,” it says in the preamble, “desire to combat […] the proliferation of counterfeit and pirated goods, [which] undermines legitimate trade and sustainable development of the world economy.”

Who could ever be opposed to that?

Fear and loathing

Euro-deputies, SMEs, and the European internet industry, however, have come out against the treaty not for its purpose but for its design, citing legal uncertainties.

Their main concern is the apparent vagueness of the text, open to interpretation, which they fear may make life difficult for internet companies.

“This text puts additional obligations on us,” says Maelle Lelardic, spokesperson for EuroISPA, an association of European internet service providers. “And therefore additional costs.”

Article 27 of the treaty – reviled against more than any other part of the text – commits its signatories to “endeavour to promote cooperative efforts within the business community to effectively address trademark and copyright [...] infringement”.

According to EuroISPA, in a statement together with representatives of the European telecommunications industry, “this would enable implementation of EU-wide cooperation obligations such as an extra-judicial ‘graduated response’ mechanism”.

Acta, they fear, may force them to actively police the internet in search of copyright pirates – and, of their own accord, kick them out if they do not toe the line.

Big vs small

A second argument, says Sebastiano Toffaletti, secretary-general of Pin-SME, an association of European IT SMEs, is that “Acta will benefit the big companies and do the opposite to the small ones”.

The treaty, he says, would enable big companies to threaten the internet service providers with legal action if they refuse to take down a small company’s content that may be in breach of the big company’s copyright.

“Big companies have so many patents,” he says. “They file as many as they can, if only in a defensive way.”

But even the internet giants are not entirely convinced. Jeremy Rollison, spokesman for Edima, an association of digital media companies whose members include Amazon, Google and Nokia, says: “We share some of the concerns [about Acta] relating to the potential impact on the EU liability regime.”

Marietje Schaake, Dutch liberal MEP and one of the parliament’s loudest opponents of Acta, agrees that the treaty would stifle innovation – “absolutely,” she says – but for a different reason.

She says that Europe’s copyright system today is fragmented and outdated. “American companies don’t even bother to bring their content onto the EU market.” Acta, she says, would only consolidate the old regime and make it more difficult to reform.

Swedish Pirate MEP Amelia Andersdotter agrees. “While the ambition of ACTA is to strengthen EU industries, it appears to be contrary to the ambition [...] to make Europe the scene for cutting edge internet innovation,” she writes in her draft opinion to be voted on by the parliament’s industry committee.

Be happy

For its part, the European Commission maintains that nobody has anything to worry about.

“There is no provision in Acta that changes the current role of internet service providers, as is often claimed,” says EU trade spokesperson John Clancy.

He says that existing EU legislation “is quite clear regarding the impossibility of imposing general obligations on ISPs to monitor the information they transmit” – something that was confirmed, he says, in a recent ruling by the EU court of justice. “And this will not be modified by Acta.”

In the case of a dispute, he says, it will be up to the European Court of Justice to provide legal interpretation. “This is legal certainty, not uncertainty.”

He says that by protecting the right to intellectual property, Acta will “help protect Europe’s raw material – innovations and ideas.”

BusinessEurope, the largest representation in Brussels of industry in Europe, agrees.

“To the contrary, Acta will boost Europe’s innovation,” says spokesperson Ilias Konteas. He says that the treaty will provide legal clarity to those who export to other Acta signatories – currently a handful of countries aside from the US, Japan, and South Korea.

“Exporters will know what to expect,” he says – something that is especially beneficial to “SMEs that cannot afford to pay for legal advice”.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton should start preparing a set of targeted restrictive measures against the Bahraini government. In a letter sent today, initiated by Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake (D66/ALDE), a cross-party coalition of 18 Members of European Parliament urged Ashton to take immediate action. Schaake: “The Bahraini government has committed itself to start a dialogue with the opposition, to implement structural reforms, to stop the violence against protestors and to release all political prisoners. However, we are seeing the opposite.” On Saturday the Bahraini authorities arrested Nabeel Rajab, one of the country’s most prominent opposition leaders. The detention of Danish/Bahraini Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, another leading opposition member and who is on hunger strike, also continues. Mr al-Khawaja is being detained together with his daughter Zainab al-Khawaja and 20 other opposition leaders.

Consistency

The MEPs ask Ashton to set a clear deadline for the Bahraini government to keep its promises. If no improvements occur or actions are being taken, the EU should immediately formally ban the exports of all military equipment, including teargas, to Bahrain. The EU should also impose travel bans on those responsible for human rights violations and freeze their assets inside the EU. Schaake: “Bahraini opposition members wonder why the EU is not exercising more pressure. Strategic interests like the presence of the United States Navy’s 5th Fleet should not have a decisive impact on the EU’s human rights policy. The EU should unequivocally support citizens in their struggle for democracy, freedom and respect for their human rights.”

Credibility

Schaake believes that an EU policy towards Bahrain that differs from that towards the Syrian government and earlier in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, will eventually do much harm to the EU’s credibility in the region. “Young people in the Middle-East and North-Africa are connected online and immediately know when the EU is applying double standards. That is not only bad policy, but also very harmful for the EU’s standing in the region”, Schaake says. Human rights have proven to be of vital strategic interests in the Arab world. “All these young people will remember the EU’s position, which will influence our future relations with the entire region. A missed opportunity.”