Paris, 15 January 2014 — A few weeks before a crucial vote on the future European Regulation on the Single Market of telecommunication in Civil Liberties (LIBE) committee, La Quadrature du Net just sent the following email to all the members of this committee, inviting them to propose strong amendments in favour of fundamental rights to the lead committee on this dossier, the Industry (ITRE) committee.
Citizens interested in taking part in the EU-wide campaign in favour of Net Neutrality and freedom online should visit the website savetheinternet.eu, and contact their representatives to urge them to protect this fundamental principle.
Dear Member of the LIBE committee,
The proposal of the European Commission 2013(627) final on the European Single Market for electronic communications will be voted next month in ITRE, the responsible committee of the file.
At this stage, five committees – LIBE included – are working on draft opinion.
On December the 10th, Mr. Salvador Sedò i Alabart, the rapporteur appointed by the LIBE committee, presented his draft opinion.
La Quadrature du Net welcomes the amendment proposed by Mr. Sedò i Alabart since they generally protect rights to privacy and personal data, as well as the confidentiality of communication, essential prerequisites for the development of an open Internet respectful of fundamental rights. However, these undeniable improvements – though they still require some adjustments as explained in the document linked to below – are not sufficient to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of the European citizens on Internet.
In particular, no amendment has been tabled on specialised services, which represent the most important loophole of the Regulation and endanger freedom of expression as well as innovation online.
On January the 16th you will be called to table amendments on Mr. Sedò i Alabart opinion. As a member of the LIBE committee you owe the duty and the responsibility to defend the rights and freedoms of the European citizens, as a whole.
To that purpose La Quadrature du Net suggests that you:
- support the provisions on privacy introduced by Mr. Sedò I Alabart in his report, taking into account the comments made by La Quadrature du Net:
https://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/LIBE_Draft_Opinion_on_Single_Market_Regulation- introduce complementary amendments proposed by La Quadrature du Net on specialized services, traffic management measures and enforcement of the Net neutrality principle:
https://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/LQDN_proposal_for_amendements_on_Single_Market_RegulationWe trust that you will remain committed to protecting the Internet commons from the harmful business logics, and remain at your entire disposal for any clarification you may need.
Sincerely,
La Quadrature du Net