Pirates of the world united in Prague at the Pirate Parties International conference 2012

On April 14th and 15th the Pirate Parties International General Assembly (PPI GA) was held in Prague. Representatives from 28 countries decided on the future of the PPI, the international umbrella organisation of Pirate Parties.

During the conference, participants drafted and signed a declaration regarding the upcoming European Electionsin 2014. Pirate Parties will participate in the European Elections, include a common programme into their individual programmes and will form a political party at European Union level. As of now, the declaration was signed by Pirates from 19 different pirate parties (DE, CZ, IT, PL, LU, BE, LV, FR, EE, FI, RO, RS, UK, ES, SI, SK, SE, CAT, PT), including famous pirate MEP Amelia Andersdotter from Sweden. [1] Individual Pirate Parties are invited to ratify the declaration in the following months.

Also, some delegates decided to support the initiative started by the Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir for endorsing Bradley Manning, who is detained for releasing documents to wikileaks which lead to the Arab Spring, for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Furthermore; the Pirate Parties of Greece and Croatia have been welcomed as new full members and Pirate Parties of Florida and Lower Saxony as observer members of PPI. The assembly also decided to upgrade the membership status of the Pirate Party of Catalonia from observer to full membership.

Besides discussions on the future of the Pirate movement a new PPI board was elected. Gregory Engels, elected Co-Chairman, wants to initiate regional meetings and an international congress on patents during the coming year. «Having more oportunities for interaction will speed up the growth of the pirate parties movement in more regions like Latin and North Americas» so he says.
Lola Voronia, Co-Chairwoman of PPI, says: «We also plan to host the first online General Assembly of PPI. This way even more Pirates from all continents can participate in the framing of future international cooperation of Pirate Parties.»

The board, the executive of PPI, was newly elected. The Co-Chairpersons are Lola Voronina (Russia, 28y) and Gregory Engels (Germany, 35y). Also aboard are Travis McCrea (US, 22y), Ed Geraghty (UK, 24y), Jelena Jovanovic (Serbia, 35y), Nuno Cardoso (Portugal, 38y) and Denis Simonet (Switzerland, 27y).

A highlight of the conference were the speeches by
Amelia Andersdotter (Pirate Party Sweden Member of European Parliament)
Laurence Vandewalle (Political advisor at European Parliament for the Greens/EFA group)
Cory Doctorow (Writer, blogger, journalist, co-editor of Boing Boing and well known anti-copying-monopoly fighter) [2]
Fabio Reinhardt (Pirate Party Member of Berlin Parliament) [3]
Rick Falkvinge (founder of the first Pirate Party in Sweden) [4]


[1] https://piratenpad.de/p/ppeuprogram
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-jbe4gBbLw&feature=plcp&context=C4ba80eeVDvjVQa1PpcFPBuf1pcegdS4JEjCZnR4TRkJNf0K9ADI0%3D
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4LoJa7cu-I&list=UURltydLLPItnRicHmYUCeSg&index=2&feature=plcp
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4LoJa7cu-I&list=UURltydLLPItnRicHmYUCeSg&index=2&feature=plcp