Paris, November 17th, 2011 – The European Parliament today massively adopted its resolution on Net neutrality, calling on the EU Commission to protect the open Internet, which is put at risk by an increasing number of restrictions imposed by telecoms operators. This overall positive resolution urges EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes to depart from her failed wait-and-see approach by rapidly assessing the need for further regulation to keep the Internet open and free. This votes represent a political commitment by the European Parliament to protecting the Internet from any form of restriction or censorship.
The EU Parliament’s adoption of a resolution on Net neutrality1http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION&reference=B7-2011-0572&language=EN by a massive majority comes at a timely moment, as the EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes keeps denying2See Mrs. Kroes’ recent declaration against the Dutch Net neutrality law: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/regulation/2011/10/03/kroes-attacks-dutch-net-neutrality-rules-40094084/ the illegitimate restrictions to Internet access imposed by operators that are reported all over Europe, as evidenced by the citizen platform RespectMyNet.
This vote is also a signal sent to BEREC – the body of EU telecoms regulators, which is expected to soon release its anticipated study on Net neutrality violations3Release of the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications’ (BEREC) study on Internet traffic management practices is expected for February 2012. – as the Members of the EU Parliament point to the dangers of access restrictions for freedom of communication, as well as competition and innovation in the digital economy.
Even though the resolution contains loopholes4See our short analysis of the text, published just after the committee vote last month: https://www.laquadrature.net/en/net-neutrality-resolution-adopted-in-eu-parliament, it is a strong political statement in favour of an open Internet. In particular, the Parliament requires the Commission to swiftly assess the need for further regulation to protect Net neutrality, as soon as BEREC concludes its fact-finding exercise5The resolution “calls on the Commission consequently to guard that Internet Service Providers do not block, discriminate against, impair, or degrade the ability of any person to use a service to access, use, send, post, receive, or offer any content, application, or service of their choice irrespective of source or target”.
“EU telecoms operators already violate Net neutrality in large numbers6See: http://www.respectmynet.eu by illegitimately restricting Internet access. If Commissioner Neelie Kroes is really committed to defending freedom of expression, as she has claimed in the past, she must act accordingly by imposing Net neutrality by law, as was done in the Netherlands. Today’s massive vote by EU Parliament certainly increases the pressure on the Commission to effectively guarantee competition and innovation as well as citizens’ freedom of expression and privacy online. As the EU Parliament commits to defending the Net’s openness, it should now act by further pushing for an effective regulation and rejecting any attempt at imposing Internet access restrictions or censorship in the name of an obsolete copyright regime, such as ACTA.”, said Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson of citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.
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