Brussels, 03/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Union will defend a free and open internet in Dubai, during the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12), which began on 3 December and which will come to a close on 14 December. Neelie Kroes, the Commissioner for the Digital Strategy declared that, “there is a real battle about how to govern the internet. The European Union's firm view is that the internet works… it is a priceless global asset for everyone and should stay open and a global”.
The conference aims to revise the International Telecommunications Regulation (ITR), which 178 countries are signatories to and which has not been amended since 1988. This treaty incorporates a body of principles for facilitating international telecommunications. Since 1988, however, there has been an explosion in communication services, particularly the internet, and the privatisation of telecommunication service providers (previously controlled by state monopolies) has taken place, making this revision necessary. The EU wants to preserve the spirit of the treaty, whose success is based on principles introduced to facilitate interconnection and on the fact that it does not contain any strict regulation. This freedom has helped towards creating this innovative explosion in communication services and technologies, notably the internet, which has not been obstructed by rules and international regulations, emphasised the European Commission. The European Union will therefore defend the original spirit of the treaty, namely a free environment, without restrictions, in which communication and information technologies will be able to continue to develop. This position is not shared by all its partners and certain countries have proposed to expand the scope of the treaty and include more binding rules within it. The Commission indicated that, “the EU sees no justification for such proposals and is concerned about the potentially negative impact on innovation and costs for operator and end-users”. (IL/trans/fl)