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Net Neutrality: EU must neither give up competitiveness nor freedoms.

La Quadrature du Net - For immediate release

Permanent link:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/net-neutrality-eu-must-neither-give-up-competitiveness-nor-freedoms


Net Neutrality: EU must neither give up competitiveness nor freedoms.



*** Paris, September 23rd - La Quadrature du Net sent a letter to the
French ministers in charge of the Telecoms Package [1] to ask them to
protect Net neutrality in the European Union, as they enter into final
negotiations on this major reform. At a time when the United States are
moving towards enforcing a principle that is crucial for competition,
innovation and citizen freedoms, Europe cannot suffer an anti-Net
neutrality legislation. La Quadrature publishes a complete dossier [2],
along with a 2-pager memo [3] on the topic and invites all European
citizens to contact their representatives in the Council [4], as well as
the 27 MEPs who will sit in the conciliation committee [5]. ***


Negotiations on the conciliation phase of the EU "Telecoms Package" [6],
will begin on September 28th. During 8 weeks, 27 Members of the European
Parliament and 27 representatives of every Member State of the EU
Council will decide the future of the European Internet. Alarmingly, in
second reading, the European Parliament adopted dispositions that are
harmful to the fundamental principle of Net neutrality. La Quadrature du
Net sent a letter to urge the French ministers in charge to solve this
issue, crucial for Europe's free competition, innovation and EU
citizens' fundamental freedoms.

As the Obama administration took a radical step towards strongly
enforcing Net neutrality in the US, and despite very disturbing parts of
their plan showing a close link to the Hollywood industries [7], Europe
cannot be left behind.

La Quadrature du Net publishes today a 22-page dossier explaining the
crucial economical and social stakes of Net neutrality, as well as a
2-pager memo.

The citizen advocacy group invites all EU citizens to contact their
representatives in the European Parliament and in the Council, to inform
them about these issues with the help of the above-mentioned analytical
material [8], and to urge them to take strong positions to remove from
the Telecoms Package the provisions that threaten Net neutrality and
write down a strong guarantee of this principle.

"We cannot afford to risk EU's competitiveness and citizens' fundamental
freedoms, to sacrifice all the social and economical benefits we got
from the Internet, simply to round off the Telecoms Package
negotiations. EU parliamentarians and national governments must react
and do what is needed to protect the general interest. It is the duty of
every citizen who cares about the Internet to participate in reminding
them how important this issue is." concludes Jérémie Zimmermann,
spokesperson for La Quadrature.



* Références *

1. Translation of the letter is available at:
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/net-neutrality-letter-to-the-ministers-in-charge
2. Protecting Net Neutrality in The Telecoms Pacakge, 22 pages:
http://laquadrature.net/files/LaQuadratureduNet-DOSSIER_Protecting_Net_Neutrality_in_the_Telecoms_Package.pdf
3. the 2-pager memo is available at:
http://laquadrature.net/files/LaQuadratureduNet-20090922-Note_Protecting_Net_Neutrality_2pager.pdf
4. Help us fill this wiki page with contact informations for
representatives in the Council:
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Contact_the_E.U_Council
5. La Quadrature provides a list of the members of the Conciliation
committe for the Parliament sorted by their scores to the previous
votes:
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Telecoms_Package-Conciliation_Committe-Parliament_Delegation#Political_Memory:_MEPs_ranking_by_score
6. ongoing revision of a set of 5 directives regulating communication
networks, see http://www.laquadrature.net/Telecoms_package
7. the US notion of Net neutrality states that the Net must remain free,
open and non-discriminatory as long as it doesn't harm the entertainment
industries... This misconception, due to the very high influence of
Hollywood lobbies, has to be clarified in the upcoming codification of
the FCC plan.
8. A complete web-dossier on Net neutrality is being put together at:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/Net_neutrality



** About la Quadrature du Net **

La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net) is citizen group informing about
legislative projects menacing civil liberties as well as economic and
social development in the digital age.

La Quadrature du Net informs citizens, public authorities,
organizations, corporations.

It works with everyone to elaborate balanced alternative solutions.

La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, european and international
NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society
Institute and Privacy International.

List of supporting organisations :
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-squaring-net-la-quadrature-du-net



** Press contact and press room **

Jérémie Zimmermann, jz@laquadrature.net, +33 (0)615 940 675

http://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room

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