Liberals and Democrats played a significant part in this morning's international trade committee vote to reject the ACTA agreement. Given the stance of the EPP group to wait for an opinion from the European Court of Justice, the vote was always going to be a close call. However, for ALDE, the Agreement contained too many grey areas and its effectiveness in tackling international counterfeiting and violations of intellectual property is seriously doubted.

Niccolo Rinaldi (IdV, Italy), spokesperson for the ALDE group on ACTA declared "Today's vote is important because it is the first time that our committee rejcts an international agreement that has already been signed by the European Commission. The signature could have been avoided if the Commission had heeded ALDE's request for clarifications and a full impact assessment back in October 2010."

"There are a number of lessons to be drawn from today's vote. First, citizens' voices count. When citizens turn to the European Parliament, the latter not only recognises their concerns, but actually takes them into account. This vote shows that the European Parliament is responsive to citizens' expectations".

"The second lesson is that all European institutions, including Commission and Council, must explain themselves before public opinion and show transparency in negotiations. The concerns of our citizens should be relayed to our trade partners and not hidden or neglected ".

"Finally this vote is a call to the European Commission to move ahead on the issue of the fight against counterfeiting but Liberals and Democrats favour intellectual property rights that can be upheld by more appropriate legal instruments."

The European Parliament will be asked to confirm the vote of the International Trade Committee on 4th July in Strasbourg.