Brussels, September 28th - The first conciliation meeting on the Telecoms Package will take place tonight at 9:30PM. In this meeting, 27 Members of the European Parliament and 27 representatives of the Council of EU will decide on the future of Internet in Europe. They will choose whether to fix or maintain the dreadful anti-Net neutrality dispositions voted in second reading by the Parliament, under the influence of AT&T. Rapporteurs and representatives of the Swedish Presidency opposed this idea so far. European citizens only have a few hours to urge MEPs to preserve Europe's innovation, competition, and citizen's fundamental rights.
The inaugural meeting of Conciliation phase on the Telecoms Package will gather 27 Members of the European Parliament delegation, and 27 representatives of the ministers of the Member States, on Monday, September 28th, at 9:30PM. During this procedure, the whole European regulatory framework of the Internet will be negotiated. In the first meeting, members of the committe will decide on the crucial perimeter of the negotiations. From this decision will depend the fate of Net neutrality in Europe.
So far, the rapporteur Catherine Trautmann and the minister in charge for the Swedish Presidency Åsa Torstensson expressed their will to deal only with the "amendment 138", which the Council wants to get rid of1 [1]. This would mean that the dreadful provisions allowing operators to kill Net neutrality in order to get control of the Internet2 [2]. These provisions allowing for limiting access to Internet services and applications, voted in second reading under influence by AT&T [3]3 [4], would then become law in Europe.
"Trautmann and Torstensson are trying to make everyone believe that Net neutrality should be dealt separately, after the Telecoms Package, but this is just a bad excuse. They know that Net neutrality is already in the Telecoms Package, because AT&T amendments allows operators to kill it to take control of the Net. They must admit it and do what is best for Europe's competitiveness and citizens's fundamental rights, at any cost. Internet is much more important for the future of our societies than the efficiency of the EU legislative process." explains Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.
Citizens from all Member States have a few hours left to call [5] all the Members of the European Parliament delegation in the conciliation committee4 [6]. They can find arguments in the letter sent to them by La Quadrature [7]5 [8] along with the Open letter [9]6 [10] signed by more than 70 NGOs across 15 Member States (including ISOC, CCC, Reporters without Borders, and major consumers unions) , in a 2-pager memo [11] and in a complete 22-pages dossier about Net neutrality [12].
"Conciliation must leave room for a clear legislative statement affirming that the fundamental principles of a non-discriminatory Internet have higher status than the short-term convenience of specific interest business models. It is very important that citizens who love the Internet act together now. We need to use this unique opportunity to help European lawmakers avoid making an irremediable mistake. " concludes Zimmermann.