#netneutrality

3. Crucial network neutrality vote to be held on 3 April

Why is this relevant?

It is a fundamental internet issue. Briefly, the legislation will determine what agreements between content providers and telecoms will be legal in the EU. The current draft of the regulation permits “specialised services” in contrast to the best effort principle. If these are allowed and defined too broadly, it would effectively result in an internet where content providers with more money can secure preferential access to end users. Start-up projects without financial backing (like Wikipedia was some years ago) would hence be disadvantaged. If, on the other hand, “specialised services” are defined too narrowly or even prohibited, it would mean the end to zero-charge projects (like Wikipedia Zero).

What happened?

The Commission proposal on net neutrality [8] officially promotes the concept, but contains many loopholes. The European Parliament report from the ITRE (Industry) Committee failed to close most of them. [9] Now, four parliamentary groups have tabled amendments [10][11] ahead of the final vote that would seriously limit the possible exceptions. The split lines run along Socialists & Democrats, Greens, the Left Group and Liberals proposing the changes and the conservatives (EPP, ECR) endorsing the ITRE version. However, most groups might end up with a split vote, making the outcome hard to predict

What comes next?

The vote will take place on Thursday, 3 April 2014 during the plenary session in Strasbourg. It is most likely to come up in the afternoon. [12]