[Advocacy Advisors] EU Policy Monitoring Report - September

Wed Oct 2 11:41:50 UTC 2013

Thanks, Dimi. Nice read. :)

Care to copy the link and a short introduction to our
"Wikimedia:Woche" to keep the German speaking community up to date?
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikimedia:Woche/N%C3%A4chste_Woche

Merci,
Nicole

On 1 October 2013 11:49, Dimitar Dimitrov <dimitar.dimitrov at wikimedia.de> wrote:
> Salut la liste!
>
> We’re back in full swing and reporting live from Brussels. In this episode
> the Commission has finally published its proposal for a net neutrality
> regulation. Simultaneously the data protection discussion has successfully
> melted into the surveillance debate, which in its turn has produced more
> hashtags than one can possibly follow.
>
>
> Dimi
>
> Past editions on Meta: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor/MR
>
>
>
> tl;dr
>
> Tere is a chance that the General Data Protection Directive will be
> negotiated behind closed doors. The Commission has tabled its proposal for a
> network neutrality regulation, including a “specialised services”
> permission. We at the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group are writing up a mission
> statement.
>
>
> ToC
>
>
> 1. Surveillance and Data Protection
>
> 2. Net Neutrality
>
> 3. Revision of the PSI Directive
>
> 4. TTIP
>
> 5. EU Launches OER Initiative
>
> 6. Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU - Drafting the Mission Statement
>
> 7. Open Policy Network by Creative Commons
>
>
> -----------------
> -----------------
>
>
> #EUdataP #EPinquiry #SMART #Tempora #Prism #SWIFT #GCHQ #NSA
>
> 1.Surveillance and Data Protection
>
>
> Why is this relevant?
>
>
> Well, its not a core issue of ours. Still, privacy is fundamental to
> intellectual knowledge and parts of our community have formulated worries
> that our servers and software might be susceptible to mass surveillance. At
> the same time both the Wikimedia Foundation [1] and Wikimedia Deutschland
> [2] have had official reactions on these issues. It is part of the future of
> the internet.
>
>
> What happened?
>
>
> While the Data Protection Regulation debate was slowly dying out, the PRISM
> affair knocked it right out of its sleep. [3]  The Civil  Liberties
> Committee of the European  Parliament is holding series of inquiry meetings
> on electronic mass surveillance [4][5] and published a report by Caspar
> Bowden on the effects of NSA surveillance on EU citizens’ rights [6a][6b],
> while at the same time Edward Snowden was officially nominated and later
> shortlisted for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought [7a][7b] given
> each year by the EP.
>
> Meanwhile a number of prominent civil society organisation signed a
> resolution against massive eavesdropping in Europe [8a] and both, the Safe
> Harbour (personal data exchange between EU-US) [9]  and the SWIFT (exchange
> of banking data) [8b] agreements were put into question by the EP and EC
> officials.
>
> While all of this has been going on, the only actual work done on the
> General Data Protection Regulation is probably the Wikipedia article, which
> now looks presentable. [10] One notable exception is Article 42, which was
> reinserted after news broke out. This amendment prohibits access to personal
> data in the EU where required by a non-EU court without the prior
> authorisation of the EU Data Protection Authority. [27]
>
>
> What comes next?
>
>
> The mass electronic surveillance frenzy has not yet resulted in major
> content changes when it comes to data protection, yet. Given the appeal and
> loose connectedness between the two topics it is however to be expected that
> at least some of the stakeholders will push this argument.
>
>
> It is likely that the Committee will have a vote on the  Parliament version
> in October.[11] Until then there will be debate over whether the trilogue -
> a discussion meeting between the Parliament, Council and Commission - should
> be informal. An informal trilogue would mean that the three parties would
> try to negotiate a compromise behind closed doors ahead of the first
> reading. [12] The earliest possible plenary vote seems to be in March 2014.
>
>
>
> -----------------
> -----------------
>
>
> #netneutrality
>
> 2. Net Neutrality
>
>
> Why is this relevant?
>
>
> It is a fundamental internet issue. The new draft regulation by the European
> Commission proposes to explicitly allow “specialised services”, without
> defining them too narrowly. This would allow content providers to pay
> telecoms for zero-charge or faster delivery of their services to the end
> user. If the Parliament and Council agree to knock these passages out, all
> preferential content delivery might be disallowed. So far this is more
> likely to happen in the Parliament. Specialised services would have
> implication on the relative place of our projects on the internet.
>
>
> What happened?
>
>
> Commissioner Kroes presented the new draft regulation [13] which came under
> immediate fire from her fellow Commissioner Reding (Justice). [14] The
> latter sees the provision allowing “specialised services” as a threat to
> freedom of speech, as the resulting traffic management would become
> “discriminatory”. While the brouhaha is settling and the Commission received
> questions and critique from across the board (e.g. [15]), some MEPs already
> took the lead and invited to round-table talks. [16] It is to be expected
> that the European Parliament, that has long been calling for a net
> neutrality regulation, will decisively change the tabled text, especially
> articles 2., 19. and 23..
>
>
> Another source for chitter-chatter is the decision of Commissioner Kroes to
> pack network neutrality into the much wider telecoms package, which also
> regulates roaming charges. It seem like the no-roaming-fees pre-election
> publicity is being traded off against actual net neutrality.
>
>
> What comes next?
>
>
> It is most likely that this Dossier will be taken over by the next
> Parliament after the elections in 2014. The next steps would be to assign
> parliamentary committees and rapporteurs. [17]
>
>
> -----------------
> -----------------
>
>
> #PSI
>
> 3. Revision of PSI Directive
>
>
> Why is this relevant?
>
>
> In very rough terms, the PSI directive is meant to encourage, authorise and
> enable the reuse of such information by anyone for both commercial and
> non-commercial purposes. It does not contain a clause to force releasing of
> content for such purpose without financial compensation, it rather gives a
> set of rules how an institution from the public sector can calculate costs
> that can be burdened on the re-user.
>
>
> What happened?
>
>
> Directive 2013/37/EU (a.k.a. Directive on the Re-use of Public Sector
> Information) [18] revises the 10 year old directive on public sector
> information. This rather broad term relates to basically all information
> created, maintained or stored by public administration and many public (even
> cultural) institutions. EU member states are given until July 2015 to revise
> the adoptions into national law.
>
>
>
> What comes next?
>
>
> The next two years will be crucial in implementing the revised
> PSI-directive. This implementation could result in standard licenses and
> overall avoidance on paywalls  or in a highly fragmented manner with
> multiple, complex and contradicting licenses and barriers to obtaining data.
>
>
> The European Commission is hosting a hearing  on this implementation in
> November following the consultation. [19] Both, WMDE and the Wikimedian in
> Brussels are going to participate.
>
>
> -----------------
> -----------------
>
>
> #TTIP
>
> 4. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement
>
>
> Why is this relevant?
>
>
> Frankly, we aren’t sure yet. Still, there is still a very real chance the
> final agreement will contain a chapter on intellectual property.
>
>
> What happened?
>
>
> A first Civil Society Dialogue organised by the European Commission took
> place back in July. [20] The information round, intended to ensure more
> transparency, didn’t provide any specific information about the discussed
> content. Here are a few statements by the EC that give us a hint about what
> lies ahead of us:
>
> -With TTIP, EU & US are aiming to *set new global standards*
>
> -Not just a  run-off-the-mill trade agreement
>
> -Negotiations will not be used to *lower*  regulation
>
>
> What comes next?
>
>
> As with previous international negotiations, transparency won’t be a
> priority for the EU or US, but managing to receive early information about
> the  intended, legally binding texts will be crucial.
>
> Current timeline expectations:
>
> -According to EU officials, the Commission will probably publish a call for
> tender on TTIP sustainability assessment
>
> -Text will be published "as soon  as it is agreed - or perhaps once it is
> sufficiently stabilised, but  not in the coming months" (statement by Levie,
> Deputy Chief Negotiator for EU)
>
> -A public stakeholder briefing on second round TTIP negotiations  will take
> place in October
>
>
> Further links:
>
> EU Portal on TTIP [21]
>
> Agenda according to MEP Marietje Schaake (ALDE, NL) [22]
>
>
>
>
> -----------------
> -----------------
>
>
> #OER
>
> 5. EU Launches OER Initiative
>
>
> Why is this relevant?
>
>
> Wikipedia and Wikisource have active OER communities [23] [24] that have
> been following and actively participating in the development in such
> initiatives and policy change relating to Open Educational Resources.
>
>
> What happened?
>
> The European Commission has launched [25] a new educational portal [26]
> allowing schools and universities to find and share Open Educational
> Resources. The standard licensing is CC-by, making it compatible with our
> projects, although other licenses are accepted as well.
>
>
> What comes next?
>
> Once the database is sufficiently populated, it could become a valuable
> resource (both citations and source documents) for our projects. Future
> cooperations are not unthinkable.
>
>
> -----------------
> -----------------
>
>
> #wikimedia
>
> 6. Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU - Drafting our Mission Statement
>
>
> In order to better define our three main policy goals and to be able to
> refer people to a “founding document” when they ask what we’re doing, we’re
> in the process of drafting something like a policy mission statement for our
> group. It has not been adopted by anyone yet and is really just an open
> document trying to define and refine ideas. Please don’t hesitate to comment
> or edit, as we’re grateful for any piece of advice.
>
>
> https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/MissionStatementFKAGEU
>
>
> -----------------
> -----------------
>
>
> #CreativeCommons
>
> 7. Open Policy Network
>
>
> Our friends at Creative Commons have constituted an Open Policy Network
> which wants to work on adopting and implementing open policies around the
> world. If that’s your cup of tea, I was assured Wikimedians are more than
> welcome.
>
>
> http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Open_Policy_Network
>
>
> -----------------
> -----------------
>
>
>
>
> Refernces
>
>
> [1]https://www.cdt.org/files/pdfs/weneedtoknow-transparency-letter.pdf
>
> [2]http://www.stopsurveillance.org/
>
> [3]http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number11.16/data-privacy-prism
>
> [4]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/201309/20130904ATT70774/20130904ATT70774EN.pdf
>
> [5]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/201309/20130925ATT71905/20130925ATT71905EN.pdf
>
> [6a]https://info.publicintelligence.net/EU-NSA-Surveillance.pdf
>
> [6b]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/documents/libe/dv/briefingnote_/briefingnote_en.pdf
>
> [7a]
> http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/17/us-eu-snowden-idUSBRE98G0FY20130917
>
> [7b]http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/uk-eu-snowden-prize-idUKBRE98T0ZF20130930
>
> [8a]http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/37224/en/
>
> [8b]http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/meps-call-for-suspension-of-eu-us-swift-agreement-following-new-nsa-revelations/#.UkXf3Hh-y1E
>
> [9]http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-710_en.htm
>
> [10]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation
>
> [11]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2012/0011%28COD%29
>
> [12]http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php/european-union/privacy/882-closed-door-trilogues-confirmed-on-the-data-privacy-agenda
>
> [13]http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2013/EN/1-2013-627-EN-F1-1.Pdf
>
> [14]http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php/telecoms-package/net-neutrality/903-reding-tackles-kroes-new-eu-telecoms-law-puts-free-speech-at-risk
>
> [15]
> http://www.berec.europa.eu/files/document_register_store/2013/9/BoR_%2813%29_104_BEREC_statement_on_publication_of_proposal_for_Regulation_on_Single_Market_2013-09-16.pdf
>
> [16]http://www.marietjeschaake.eu/2013/09/event-roundtable-discussion-on-netneutrality/
>
> [17]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2013/0309%28COD%29&l=en
>
> [18]http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:175:0001:0008:EN:PDF
>
> [19]http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/consultation-guidelines-recommended-standard-licences-datasets-and-charging-re-use-public
>
> [20]http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=945
>
> [21]http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ttip/
>
> [22]http://www.marietjeschaake.eu/2013/09/new-ttip-faq-the-negotiation-phase-events-updates-key-positions-and-docs/
>
> [23]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Communicate_OER
>
> [24]http://www.wikimedia.de/wiki/OERde13
>
> [25]http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-859_en.htm
>
> [26]http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/
>
> [27]http://www.sidley.com/European-Parliamentarians-Seek-Reinsertion-of-Onerous-Anti-FISA-Article-42-into-Proposed-EU-Data-Protection-Legislation-07-02-2013/
>
>
>
>
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>

-- 
Nicole Ebber
International Affairs

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Obentrautstr. 72 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. +49 30 219158 26-0

http://wikimedia.de

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg
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Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.