Pirate Parties International

Pirate Parties International
PPI signet
Abbreviation PPI
Formation April 18, 2010 (2010-04-18)
Type International nongovernmental organisation
Legal status Association
Purpose Political
Headquarters Brussels, Belgium
Membership
 Pirate parties and affiliated associations
Chairperson
 Andrew Reitemeyer
Vice-Chairperson
 Patrick Schiffer
Main organ
 General Assembly
Website www.pp-international.net
  Elected in EU Parliament
  Elected nationally
  Elected locally
  Registered for elections
  Registered in some states
  Unregistered but active
  Status unknown
  Ordinary members
  Observer members in some states
  Resigned
  Removed due to dissolution or disbanding

Pirate Parties International (PPI) is a not-for-profit international non-governmental organisation with its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.[1] Formed in 2010, it serves as a worldwide organisation for Pirate Parties, currently representing members from 42 countries. The Pirate Parties are political incarnations of the freedom of expression movement, trying to achieve their goals by the means of the established political system rather than through activism.

Aims

The PPI statutes[2] give its purposes as:

to help establish, to support and promote, and to maintain communication and co-operation between pirate parties around the world.

The PPI advocate on the international level for the promotion of the goals its Members share such as protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the digital age, consumer and authors rights oriented reform of copyright and related rights, support of information privacy, transparency and free access to information.

The name "Pirates" itself is a reappropriation of the title that was given to internet users by the representatives of the music and film industry, and does not refer to any illegal activity.

History

The first Pirate party was the Swedish Piratpartiet, founded on January 1, 2006 by Rick Falkvinge. Other parties and groups were formed in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. In 2007, representatives of these parties met in Vienna, Austria to form an alliance and plan for the 2009 European Parliament elections.[3] Further conferences were held in 2008 in Berlin and Uppsala, the latter leading to the "Uppsala Declaration" of a basic platform for the elections.[4]

In September 2008, Andrew Norton (United States) was appointed as coordinator of the PPI collective. In August 2009 he stepped down[5] and passed the function of coordinator over to the "coreteam" led by Patrick Mächler and Samir Allioui.[6]

In 2009, the original Pirate Party won 7.1% of the vote[7] in Sweden's European Parliament elections and won two of Sweden's twenty MEP seats, inspired by a surge in membership following the trial and conviction of three members of the ideologically aligned Pirate Bay a year earlier.[8]

On 18 April 2010, the Pirate Parties International was formally founded in Brussels at the PPI Conference from April 16 to 18.[1]

The Uppsala Declaration

At the 2009 conference of Pirate Parties International in Uppsala (Sweden), European Pirate parties agreed on a common declaration of the parties' goals for the upcoming election of the European Parliament.[9][10] Central issues of the declaration are:

The Prague Declaration

At 2012 conference of Pirate Parties International in Prague (Czech Republic), European Pirate parties agreed to run in the elections to the European Parliament in the year 2014 with a common program as well as establish a European political party. The declaration[11] has been followed by conferences in Potsdam and Barcelona to work on the structure of the legal body to come and the statutes for it.

Resignations

In February 2015, Pirate Party Australia resigned from PPI due to serious disagreement with the direction and management of the organisation.[12] In the same month, Pirate Party UK also resigned[13] and in March the Belgian Pirate Party suspended its membership within PPI.[14]

On 20 April 2015, the Pirate Party of Iceland voted overwhelmingly to leave PPI.[15] A member of the executive, Arnaldur Sigurðarson, reported a 96.56% vote in favour of leaving, adding: “PPI has been pretty much useless when it comes to its objectives which should be to encourage international cooperation between Pirate Parties.”

In May 2015, the Pirate Party of Sweden resolved with a significant majority to leave PPI, cancelling their observer status.[16]

Structure

The PPI is governed by a board, led by two co-chairs.[17] Policy, govenance, and applications for membership are the responsibility of the PPI General Assembly which must convene at least once per year.[18]

PPI Board
Year Co-Chairs COA CFO Member of the board Alternates
2010/2011 Germany Grégory Engels,

Luxembourg Jerry Weyer

 Germany Joachim Mönch Sweden Nicolas Sahlqvist Serbia Aleksandar Blagojevic,

Czech Republic Jakub Michálek,
Bulgaria Bogomil Shopov

 –
2011/2012 Netherlands Samir Allioui,

Czech Republic Marcel Kolaja
(receded)

 Russia Lola Voronina Switzerland Patrick Mächler United Kingdom Finlay Archibald
(receded),

France Paul da Silva
(receded),
Germany Thomas Gaul

 –
2012/2013 Germany Grégory Engels,

Russia Lola Voronina

 Canada Travis McCrea United Kingdom Ed Geraghty Portugal Nuno Cardoso,

Russia Jelena Jovanović,
Switzerland Denis Simonet

 Australia Brendan Molloy,

Germany Thomas Gaul,
Italy Alessandra Minoni,
United States Andrew Norton
(receded)

2013/2014 Germany Grégory Engels,

Czech Republic Vojtěch Pikal

 Germany Thomas Gaul Luxembourg Marc Tholl Portugal Nuno Cardoso,

Russia Azat Gabrakhmanov,
Switzerland Denis Simonet

 Russia Jelena Jovanović,

Belgium Paul Bossu,
Poland Radosław Pietroń,
Turkey Yasin Aydin

2014/2015 Croatia Maša Čorak,

Belgium Koen de Voegt

 Germany Thomas Gaul Germany Sebastian Krone Germany Grégory Engels,

Germany Thomas Gaul,
Norway Anders Kleppe,
Greece Stathis Leivaditis

 Italy Marco Confalonieri,

Turkey Yasin Aidin,
Japan Min Chiaki,
Tunisia Chemseddine Ben Jemaa

since July 2015 New Zealand Andrew Reitemeyer,

Germany Patrick Schiffer (vice-president)

 (unclear yet) (unclear yet) Japan Min Chiaki,

Tunisia Chemseddine Ben Jemaa,
Switzerland Dr. Richard Hill,
Brazil Henrique Peer,
Mexico Karla Medrano

 Norway Anders Kleppe,

Russia Nikolay Voronov,
Belgium Koen De Voegt,
Germany Grégory Engels

PPI Conferences

International Pirate Party Meetings
Name Date of Meeting Location Host Party
International Conference 2007 8-10/6/2007 Vienna, Austria
International Conference 1/2008 26-27/1/2008 Berlin, Germany
International Conference 2/2008 27-29/6/2008 Uppsala, Sweden
PPI Conference 2010 (Founding Conference) 16-18/4/2010 Brussels, Belgium Pirate Party Belgium
PPI Conference 2011 12-13/3/2011 Friedrichshafen, Germany Pirate Party Germany
PPI Conference 2012 14-15/4/2012 Prague, Czech Republic Czech Pirate Party
Pirate Summer Conference 9-10/6/2012 Aarau, Switzerland Pirate Party Aargau
PPI Conference 2013 20-21/4/2013 Kazan, Russia Pirate Party of Russia
PPI Conference 2014 12-13/4/2014 Paris, France, on OpenSpace Conference Pirate Party of France
PPI Conference 2015 4-5/7/2015 Warsaw, Poland, on OpenSpace Conference Pirate Party of Poland
PPI Conference 2016 23-24/7/2016 Berlin, Germany Pirate Party of Berlin

Pirate Party movement worldwide

See Pirate Party and List of Pirate Parties for an overview of all Pirate Parties around the world.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Pirate International is born". Presseurop. 2010-04-20. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
  2. ↑ "Pirate Parties International Statutes" (PDF). Pirate Parties International. 2010-04-18. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  3. ↑ Ben Jones (2007-06-09). "Pirates Gather at First International Pirate Party Conference". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  4. ↑ "The Uppsala Declaration or European Pirate Parties Declaration of a basic platform for the European Parliamentary Election of 2009". Piratpartiet. 2008-07-02. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  5. ↑ Norton, Andrew (2009-08-02). "Signing off". pp.int.general (Mailing list). Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  6. ↑ "Patrick Mächler steps down - Jerry Weyer Steps up!". 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  7. ↑ "Swedish pirates capture EU seat". BBC News. BBC. 2008-06-08. Retrieved 2011-09-26.
  8. ↑ Will Smale (2010-04-27). "Election: Can Pirate Party UK emulate Sweden success?". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2011-09-26.
  9. ↑ "European Pirate Platform 2009". Pirate Party (Sweden). Retrieved 2012-04-05.
  10. ↑ "Uppsala-Deklaration". Piratenwiki (in German and English). Pirate Party Germany. 2010-07-29. Retrieved 2012-04-05.
  11. ↑ The Prague Declaration
  12. ↑ "Pirate Party Australia resigns from PPI". 2015-02-11. Retrieved 2015-02-11.
  13. ↑ "PPUK leaves PPI". 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2015-02-25.
  14. ↑ "PPBE suspends their PPI membership". 2015-03-04. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  15. ↑ "Icelandic Pirates: PPIS Vote to Leave PPI and Birgitta only Politician to increase in Trust". 2015-04-20. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
  16. ↑ "Motion P01: Proposition ang. att lämna observatörsmedlemskapet i PPI". 2015-05-10. Retrieved 2015-05-10.
  17. ↑ Pirate Parties International Statutes, Article XIII.
  18. ↑ Pirate Parties International Statutes, Articles IX - XI.

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