Brussels, 19/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes is pleased with the EP's industry committee (ITRE) vote on 18 March and stated that “digital tools and telecom networks improve productivity and performance in every area of daily life. We now need to move onto the next step”. Kroes pointed out that the strategy presented by the European Commission was crucial for competitiveness and sector dynamism, as well as the European citizens who need and have a right to high performance wireless services.
Free and open internet supporters, however, were not happy with the vote, which they believe puts freedom of the internet in danger. Openforum Europe (OFE) supports an open internet and regretted that the amendments in the compromise proposed by EPP rapporteur Pilar del Castillo had been adopted because they may allow operators to reduce quality. It emphasised that “we are concerned that internet access providers will be allowed to act as gatekeepers by picking the winners and losers among content, service and application providers, based on commercial agreements”. It is afraid that “specialised services” will become the norm and not the exception that these services would become more important than content. The OFE affirmed that “the concept of the internet as a non-hierarchical, open and decentralised space is being undermined fundamentally in this moment. The internet must remain open and a level-playing field for its stakeholders, as intended initially by its founders”. Quadrature, an organisation that defends the rights and freedoms of citizens on the internet, said that the ITRE committee and its rapporteur, “had succumbed to pressure from the telecoms lobbies, which meant that significant shortcomings still existed in the text”. The shortcomings will have to be corrected by the EP during its plenary vote on 3 April next, so that the companies dominating the digital economy are not allowed to monopolise the net attempting to maximise their profits, explained the organisation. (IL)