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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

No Debate [SocioPolitico]

Where is the appropriate forum for the debate of new legislation? It used to be in the press, or in Parliament, but now we are seeing template legislation created centrally in Europe and then enacted by cookie-cutter in Parliament, it seems the right to debate legislation has been removed. Two cases grab me particularly at the moment; the case of the European Copyright Directive (ECD) and the case of the European Arrest Warrant [via Natalie Solent] (EAW). If you're not familiar with the EAW, go directly and take a good look, scares the hell out of me.

In both cases, legislation has been devised which removes rights from British citizens (and probably other EU citizens too) as it levels the legislative landscape. To its authors it probably sounds very reasonable - copyright harmonisation sounds good, and being able to arrest criminals EU-wide sounds a fine objective. As ever, the devil is in the details. The ECD threatens to enact copy protection measures which, like the deeply flawed American DMCA, at best threaten and at worst eliminate the fair-use rights we all take for granted with media. The EAW allows arrest and detention of British citizens in Britain under the conditions of other EU member states - Greece, for example. Expect arbitrary arrest involving physical assault that can't be challenged in court, detention without trial or charge for arbitrary periods, and more.

While I often have a lot of sympathy for the idea of a European federation (which will immediately block me from a whole load of blogrolls), the implications of having legislation being devised effectively in camera and then being beyond reproach when it comes to national enactment seems deeply wrong to me. I don't agree with the anti-EC brigades extreme pull-out-or-perish position but nonetheless I think we can see a big problem developing here as rounded but wrong legislation pours into Parliament.

posted at 11:18 AM (UK) | |