A couple of pirates at the helm of the European Union

The European Pirates [1], who came together in Brussels in early spring to found their European party, took the opportunity to also choose their candidates for the President of the European Commission. The pirate movement will put forward not just one, but two persons: the current Swedish member of the European Parliament, Amelia Andersdotter, and the founder of the platform The Pirate Bay, Peter Sunde.

Amelia is currently the youngest MEP. While being International Coordinator for the Young Pirates in Sweden, she was voted second on the list of the Swedish Pirate Party for the European elections 2009. The Piratpartiet [2] achieved 7.1% in these elections, which allowed them to obtain an additional seat acquired by Sweden when the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2011. Since then she fought for the values of the Pirate Party in the European parliament. She is again running for the EU elections for the Pirate Party Sweden in 2014.

Amelia Andersdotter played a key role in the fight against the anti-conterfeiting trade agreement, better known as "ACTA". Indeed, she was rapporteur of the ITRE (industry, research and energy) Committee on this issue and was able to convince the majority of her colleagues to reject this agreement. Thanks to the efforts of pirates and actors of civil society, the European Parliament then became aware of the dangers of ACTA for European citizens, and rejected it by more than 90% of the votes in plenary Assembly.

Peter Sunde has joined the Swedish Piratbyrån (Pirate Bureau) [3] in 2003. He launched initiatives such as micropayment platform Flattr[4], to support the authors and artists in 2010, or encrypted messaging Hemlis[5] which allows to avoid surveillance by protecting the confidentiality of electronic correspondence in 2013. But he especially became known to the general public for his role of co-founder and spokesman for the Platform The Pirate Bay [6], the most famous of the Bittorrent protocol file-sharing sites [7]. Peter Sunde, a binational polyglot with a diverse track record, is a candidate in the European elections 2014 for the Pirate Party of Finland.

By allowing everyone to share any file with the rest of the world, The Pirate Bay has contributed to the dissemination of knowledge and culture worldwide, as well as the fight against censorship. Sued for infringement, Peter and the other 3 co-founders firmly defended the neutral position of the platform to users coming from countries with very different regimes. They were sentenced with heavy fines and prison sentences by the Swedish justice, despite the conflict of interest of several successive judges who were subsequently recognised to be members of lobbying groups campaigning for tougher copyright laws [8].

With this duo, the Pirate Party gives itself a capable couple, able to represent its values. Combining both youth and experience, Amelia and Peter will carry the ideas of the Pirate Party into the European Parliament and the Commission. The Internet has shown the benefits of a distributed organization, based on cooperation among near equals: who better than Pirates to design and promote the European Union we need?

The European Pirates

[1] https://europeanpirates.eu/
[2] http://www.piratpartiet.se/
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piratbyrån
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattr
[5] https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-announces-encrypted-nsa-proof-communication-apps-130710/
[6] https://thepiratebay.se/
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent
[8] http://blog.brokep.com/2013/04/03/biased-judge-also-in-the-echr/