Brussels, 30/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 30 June, the European Commission launched a consultation on key questions arising from the issue of net neutrality. This approach is directly linked to the Digital strategy to Europe, given that many of the objectives in this strategy depend upon the existence of a neutral and open net. It covers such issues as whether internet providers should be allowed to adopt certain traffic management practices, prioritising one kind of internet traffic over another, whether such traffic management practices may create problems and have unfair effects for users, whether the level of competition between different internet service providers and the transparency requirements of the new telecom framework may be sufficient to avoid potential problems by allowing consumers' choice, and whether the EU needs to act further to ensure fairness in the internet market, or whether industry should take the lead
European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes announced in April 2010 her intention to launch this consultation in order to take forward Europe's net neutrality debate. The commissioner emphasised that “I am committed to keeping the internet open and neutral. Consumers should be able to access the content they want. Content providers and operators should have the right incentives to keep innovating. But traffic management and net neutrality are highly complex issues. I do not assume that one approach or another should prevail. We need input from all sides so we can examine all the issues carefully, in a very objective way, strike the right balance between all the interests involved and work out what new measures, if any, may be needed”.
The consultation will feed into a Commission report on net neutrality, which should be presented by the end of this year. All interested parties - service and content providers, consumers, businesses and researchers - are invited to respond to the consultation by 30 September 2010. An open and neutral internet underpins many of the targets set out in the Digital Agenda for Europe. (I.L./transl.fl)