Big tech accountability? Read how we got here in  The Closing of the Net 

Telecoms Package 2nd Reading

This section of iptegrity.com is devoted to analysing the Telecoms Package Second Reading in the European Parliament. In it, I have published articles, papers and analysis notes  which took a critical look at the proposed texts and what they might have meant for European citizens and users, with a particular focus on the Internet and content issues. 

The Telecoms Package was  the review of European telecommunications framework legislation, (for full details  please see the other section on iptegrity.com labelled Telecoms Package). Over 800 amendments were originally  tabled to the two main directives involved - the so-called Better Regulation directive which incorporates the Framework, Access and Authoritisation directives - and the so-called Citizens Rights directive - which incorporates the Universal Services directive and the e-Privacy directive.

With so many amendments, covering such a broad scope of legislation, it is almost impossible for anyone, even specialists, to have a grasp of their meaning in real life. Let alone members of the European Parliament, for whom this is just one of many subjects, and where they are reliant on their assistants, who in turn rely on lobbyists. This is especially true since the real meaning of many amendments depends on how they are inter-linked with others. Following the chain of links, to figure out, is a complex task. However, when one does so, some serious consequences are being revealed.

The over-arching  problem is that this is policy being made by changes in the law. The scope of the telecoms framework is being altered via often subtle wording changes in the amendments. The changing scope is de facto establishing policy, and by-passing the correct policy processes which have been established in the European Union. 

 

To give an idea of the scale of the problem, one telecoms lawyer complained to me that he had  250 pages of documents to read through,  in order to analyse the Package and  do the job properly. What did he have?  The Council compromise documents for the two main bundles in the Package - Better Regulation and Citizens rights - plus the Common position for reference.  For those of us who have been with the Telecoms Package  since the beginning, trawling through this amount of documentation  is strangely normal. It also puts into perspective the enormity of the job for the European Parliament, and begs the question whether MEPs can really do it justice in the time allowed. 

If you like the articles in this section and you are interested in Eu telecoms policy and the 2009 Telecoms Package, especially with regard to copyright enforcement policy, you may like my books A Copyright Masquerade: How Corporate Lobbying Threatens Online Freedoms and The Copyright Enforcement Enigma - Internet Politics and the ‘Telecoms Package’

You may like my book The Closing of the Net which positions the story of the 2009 Telecoms Package in the wider policy context. 

 



When it comes to China, the European Commission understands perfectly that Internet filters are about censorship and limiting freedom of expression. So why are they  blind, deaf and dumb to it in the Telecoms Package?

 

My attention has just been drawn to comments by Martin Selmayr,  European Commission press spokesman  for DG Information Society,  regarding the Chinese government's Green Dam initiative to censor the Internet in order to ‘protect the children'.

 Mr Selmayr accused the Chinese of using the ruse of protecting children in order to limit freedom of expression via Internet filtering technology. What is really interesting is that when it comes to the EU Telecoms Package, Mr Selmayr's excellent

Read more: EU and Net censorship: do as I say, not as I do

Viviane Reding says she will tackle the collecting societies on pan-European licencing and she will back projects for cloud computing. That should be good news.  But Our Lady of the U-turns has done it again. Because in the same speech she calls for the Telecoms Package to come into force, ignoring that it is about restricting innovative Internet services, and tries to belittle the importance of Amendment 138 which seeks to safeguard users' rights.

 

In a speech to the Lisbon council in Brussels last week, European Commissioner for Information Society, Viviane Reding, has vowed to tackle the biggest obstacle to so-called legal online content services  - the collecting societies and their resistance to a pan-European licence for Internet music and film rights.

 "In my view,growing internet piracy is a vote of

Read more: Viviane Reding’s wake-up call

Viviane Reding, who is currently still the EU Commissioner for Information Society,  has renewed a call to ‘seal the deal' on the Telecoms Package. Her  haste  to get the Package all wrapped up seems a little indecent.  Amendment 138, the reason why the Package has not been sealed, raises issues concerning the protection of   fundamental rights on the Internet. And, as European Commissioner, she is a guardian of the Treaties, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights. But what if she takes up the seat she won as MEP? 

 

Speaking at a telecoms industry event, she said "In this time of economic crisis, we

Read more: Viviane Reding's indecent haste to seal the Package

Iptegrity in brief

 

Iptegrity.com is the website of Dr Monica Horten. I’ve been analysing analysing digital policy since 2008. Way back then, I identified how issues around rights can influence Internet policy, and that has been a thread throughout all of my research. I hold a PhD in EU Communications Policy from the University of Westminster (2010), and a Post-graduate diploma in marketing.   I’ve served as an independent expert on the Council of Europe  Committee on Internet Freedoms, and was involved in a capacity building project in Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine. I am currently (from June 2022)  Policy Manager - Freedom of Expression, with the Open Rights Group. For more, see About Iptegrity

Iptegrity.com is made available free of charge for  non-commercial use, Please link-back & attribute Monica Horten. Thank you for respecting this.

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States v the 'Net? 

Read The Closing of the Net, by me, Monica Horten.

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" essential read for anyone interested in understanding the forces at play behind the web." ITSecurity.co.uk

Find out more about the book here  The Closing of the Net

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Copyright Enforcement Enigma launch, March 2012

In 2012, I presented my PhD research in the European Parliament.

 

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