German Pirates prepare for European Elections 2014 January 3, 2014 · by Paul Wardenga · in Pirate Party News On Saturday and Sunday the Pirate Party of Germany will convene in Bochum, North-Rhine Westfalia for their last general assembly before the European elections in May.While the meeting will also allow a small amount of time for the completion of the election platform, the main focus will be on the election of candidates for the European Parliament. The threshold for German candidates to gain seats is at a mere 3%. In addition a case against this threshold, which was only recently created by Germany’s long-established parties, is still pending at the …

EuWiKon 2.0 – German Pirates push forward positions on Europe and the economy March 13, 2013 · by Paul Wardenga · in Pirate Party News Last weekend, 9-10 March 2013, about 80 Pirates of the German Pirate Party met in Frankfurt, Hesse to do a follow-up on last year’s successful conference on European and Economic Policy (or “EuWiKon”, as the German acronym goes). Just like last time, the event was organised by Pirates from the party’s working groups (WG) Economics, Europe and Monetary System. WG Europe concentrated on refining proposed passages of text for the Party’s federal election platform. The WG’s coordinator Gilles Bordelais stressed how most of what people …

EU copyright law – Pirates enable citizen participation March 2, 2013 · by Paul Wardenga · in Pirate Party News The European Commission is currently planning the next revision of IPRED, the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive. At the very least the directive is expected to carve the current copyright regime deeper into stone, thereby further preventing much needed reform. But very likely it will also include a tightening of “enforcement”, for example restrictions on due process for file sharers through “fast track” litigation, more enforcement responsibilities for private service providers and harder penalties. Before submitting the directive to the European legislative process, the Commission opened a “consultation”, an online …

German Pirates debate Europe, Economics and Eurocrisis October 6, 2012 · by Paul Wardenga · in Pirate Party News On 29 and 30 September 2012, over 100 Pirates from the Pirate Party of Germany met to discuss Economic and European Policy at the Conference for Europe, Economics and Finance (or EuWiKon, as the German acronym goes) in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The meeting was a preparatory measure for the upcoming 2013 German national elections. The German Pirates previously had been criticised for having little substance in their manifesto beyond the International Pirate consensus. Last weekend they set out to fill in some of the blanks in two important policy fields. The …