Negotiators will meet tonight to thrash out a deal on
net neutrality for Europe.
The 27-strong European Parliament delegation will meet
telecommunications ministers for conciliation talks over
Amendment 138, which guarantees that no-one can interfere with
a user's access to and enjoyment of internet access without a court
order.
This single clause is holding up the passage of the
Telecoms
Package, which will create a single market in
telecommunications in Europe.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Christian Engström from the
Pirate Party, Sweden, and Philippe Lamberts form Ecolo, Belgium,
both Greens/EFA members of the European Parliament delegation, said
parliament had yet to receive an explanation from the Council of
Minister as to why it rejected Amendment 138 almost five months
after the European Parliament passed it.
"The absence of any explanation clearly hampers attempts to
reach a compromise," they said.
They said the council seemed to want to limit the negotiations
to a review of whether or not it is possible to interfere with
citizens' internet access without a court order.
"The European Parliament vote made clear that internet access
should not be blocked without a prior ruling by the judicial
authorities," they said. "Now, the only aim of the council seems to
be to reverse the parliament's vote on this issue."
Such a blinkered approach would harm efforts to reach a workable
compromise, they said.
"The Greens/EFA group is calling for broader and more
open-minded negotiations, which aim for legislation that protects
citizens' rights and guarantees that the internet stays free and
open," they said.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission
recently endorsed the net neutrality principle as one of six
tenets of an open internet.
Observers say telecommunications ministers want Amendment 138
dropped to make it easier to police the internet, and to allow
network operators to restrict certain types of traffic, such as
Skype calls and other peer to peer file-sharing systems.
According to market analyst Telegeography, Skype, which uses the
internet to route calls, is now effectively
the world's biggest carrier of international voice calls.
International voice traffic is one of the most lucrative sources of
income for network operators.