Net Neutrality: EU must neither give up competitiveness nor freedoms.

Paris, September 24th – La Quadrature du Net sent a letter to the French ministers in charge of the Telecoms Package¹Translation of the letter is available at: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/net-neutrality-letter-to-the-ministers-in-charge to ask them to protect Net neutrality in the European Union, as they enter into final negotiations on this major reform. At a time when the United States are moving towards enforcing a principle that is crucial for competition, innovation and citizen freedoms, Europe cannot suffer an anti-Net neutrality legislation. La Quadrature publishes a complete dossier²Protecting Net Neutrality in The Telecoms Pacakge, 22 pages: http://laquadrature.net/files/LaQuadratureduNet-DOSSIER_Protecting_Net_Neutrality_in_the_Telecoms_Package.pdf, along with a 2-pager memo³the 2-pager memo is available at: http://laquadrature.net/files/LaQuadratureduNet-20090922-Note_Protecting_Net_Neutrality_2pager.pdf on the topic and invites all European citizens to contact their representatives in the Council⁴Help us fill this wiki page with contact informations for representatives in the Council: http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Contact_the_E.U_Council, as well as the 27 MEPs who will sit in the conciliation committee⁵La Quadrature provides a list of the members of the Conciliation committe for the Parliament sorted by their scores to the previous votes: http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Telecoms_Package-Conciliation_Committe-Parliament_Delegation#Political_Memory:_MEPs_ranking_by_score.

Negotiations on the conciliation phase of the EU “Telecoms Package”⁶ongoing revision of a set of 5 directives regulating communication networks, see http://www.laquadrature.net/Telecoms_package, will begin on September 28th. During 8 weeks, 27 Members of the European Parliament and 27 representatives of every Member State of the EU Council will decide the future of the European Internet. Alarmingly, in second reading, the European Parliament adopted provisions that are harmful to the fundamental principle of Net neutrality. La Quadrature du Net sent a letter to urge the French ministers in charge to solve this issue, crucial for Europe’s free competition, innovation and EU citizens’ fundamental freedoms.

As the Obama administration took a radical step towards strongly enforcing Net neutrality in the US, and despite very disturbing parts of their plan showing a close link to the Hollywood industries⁷the US notion of Net neutrality states that the Net must remain free, open and non-discriminatory as long as it doesn’t harm the entertainment industries… This misconception, due to the very high influence of Hollywood lobbies, has to be clarified in the upcoming codification of the FCC plan., Europe cannot be left behind.

La Quadrature du Net publishes today a 22-page dossier explaining the crucial economical and social stakes of Net neutrality, as well as a 2-pager memo.

The citizen advocacy group invites all EU citizens to contact their representatives in the European Parliament and in the Council, to inform them about these issues with the help of the above-mentioned analytical material⁸A complete web-dossier on Net neutrality is being put together at: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/Net_neutrality, and to urge them to take strong positions to remove from the Telecoms Package the provisions that threaten Net neutrality and write down a strong guarantee of this principle.

“We cannot afford to risk EU’s competitiveness and citizens’ fundamental freedoms, to sacrifice all the social and economical benefits we got from the Internet, simply to round off the Telecoms Package negotiations. EU parliamentarians and national governments must react and do what is needed to protect the general interest. It is the duty of every citizen who cares about the Internet to participate in reminding them how important this issue is.” concludes Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for La Quadrature.