On Saturday, July 17, 2010, I said on twitter, “Apparently Luc Devigne is out as head #acta negotiator for EU.” There were a number of sources for this inside the European Union and also among other trade bodies or governments following or participating in the ACTA negotiations.
This was re-tweeted extensively, and resulted in various commentary and reporting on LucDevigne’s rule in ACTA, including speculation on the reasons for the change.
Today I received a call from John Clancy, the official spokesman for DG-Trade head Karel de Gucht. Clancy was calling about the Saturday message on twitter.
According to Clancy, Luc Devigne will be soon be starting a new senior position in DG-Trade that will including managing broader trade issues than intellectual property, for example, trade issues for a specific country. However, according to Clancy, contrary to what I earlier reported on twitter, Luc Devigne will continue as the chief EC negotiator for ACTA, until the conclusion of the ACTA negotiations.