Today, the European Parliament’s last advisory committee had its say on ACTA – the Development Committee, overseeing third world development and world health issues. It joined its previous committees in recommending that the European Parliament rejects ACTA.

This was the fourth and last of the advisory committees that had a say in ACTA’s adoption. It turned the (horrible) draft around completely, and recommends the European Parliament to reject ACTA by a crushing vote of 19-1. The Development Committe, DEVE, thus joins the previous three advisory committees of ITRE (Industry, Research, Energy), JURI (Legal Affairs), and LIBE (Civil Liberties) in recommending rejection. To see all of these areas of responsibility recommend a rejection of the controversial treaty will be a hard political nut to crack for the treaty’s proponents.

(UPDATE: The vote count initially said 19-3. This was later corrected to 19-1, with 3 abstentions.)

The next thing that happens is that the committee that champions the issue of ACTA within the European Parliament, the International Trade committee (INTA), will summarize these opinions. It will then mix in its own, and give a final recommendation to the European Parliament.

INTA votes on its recommendation on June 20. The European Parliament votes some time in the July 2-5 session.

We’re winning, but only because we’re fighting. Just because we have a 4-0 lead, that doesn’t mean that this game is over until the fat lady sings along with the vote on the floor of the European Parliament.

See also ACTA-bloggen (in Swedish).