The European Parliament (EP) on Wednesday rejected an international deal to battle online piracy, known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Twenty-two of the 27 EU states as well as other countries, including the United States and Japan, signed the ACTA in January, however, this rejection means that neither the EU nor its individual member states could join the agreement.

Members of European Parliament voted by 478 to 39 against the pact, with 165 abstentions, which also marked the first time that the EP exercised its Lisbon Treaty power to reject an international trade deal.

"The vote against ACTA was not one against the protection of intellectual property," said President of European Parliament Martin Schulz in a statement following the vote.

He said the majority in the European Parliament regarded that ACTA was a "wrong solution", being "too vague, leaving the room for abuses and raising concern about its impact on consumers' privacy and civil liberties, on innovation and the free flow of information."

The European parliament's rapporteur on ACTA, David Martin said he was "pleased" that the EP followed his recommendations, while he also stressed that EU has to find alternative ways to protect intellectual property in the EU as the "raw material of the EU economy."

(Source: Xinhua)