Brussels, 02/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - A few hours ahead of the vote in plenary at the European Parliament on connected continent legislation, defenders of net neutrality urged MEPs to vote in favour of amendments lodged by the ALDE, Greens/EFA, S&D and GUE Groups to ensure freedom on the internet (see EUROPE 11041).
During her time as EU Digital Economy Commissioner, defenders of the internet argue, Neelie Kroes has toned down her talk of freedom of the web, moving from full support to alignment with the arguments of telecoms lobbyists and coming up with hasty draft legislation that she is trying to push it through before the European elections. They accuse her of allowing discrimination on the web by allowing operators to provide “specialised services” for a fee, an area of the draft regulation that has not been adjusted in the version of the report by Pilar del Castillo that was adopted a fortnight ago by the EP's telecoms committee. An online campaign, Save the Internet, has been launched, urging people in Europe to contact MEPs to try to prevent a two-speed internet being introduced.
Commissioner Kroes says she is not trying to limit the internet in any way, but there was a misunderstanding about specialised services. In an open letter to MEPs on Tuesday 1 April, she says that the draft legislation aims to ensure clear and firm protection for full access to an open internet, and specialised services will only be allowed if they do not hinder access to basic internet services: “They must be delivered on distinct and additional network capacity - they can't eat into existing capacity and existing contractually-agreed speeds that you pay for. National regulations will be in charge of upholding net neutrality and policing specialised services - so it cannot be claimed that they will allow net neutrality rules to be bypassed. Specialised services already exist that are unregulated. There is a strong case for specialised services - given their importance in driving innovation and investment in the digital economy, and in providing tailored services that consumers and start-ups expressly ask for. So we must carefully regulate, and not hinder or effectively ban these specialised services.' During the debate ahead of the vote on 2 April. The commissioner urged the MEPs to not let themselves be influenced by “lobbyists who probably said this was about saving the internet versus destroying it. Freedom versus tyranny. We are not here just to come out with nice slogans. We could kill the internet with words - I want to save it with actions. So let's take up our responsibilities and do the hard work”. (IL)