[Advocacy Advisors] EU Policy Monitoring Report March

[Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov]

Hi everyone,

as promised here is a first update from the net neutrality vote today (part
of Telecoms Package/Connected Conitent):

Amendments proposed by the Greens/EFA, S&D, GUE/NGL as well as amendments
tabled (non-US sense) by the ALDE Group passed as well. The definitions are
waterproof enough now to make most civil society actors happy, only
amendments aiming at imposing penalties for telecoms operators didn't find
a majority due to the liberals (ALDE Group) not supporting them. There is a
documents with all accepted amendments. [1]


To us the most important should be the definitions of both "network
neutrality" and "specialised services". These are amendments 234 and 235
that where supported even by the conservatives (EPP Group). Whether
Wikipedia Zero is concerned will depend on whether it is deemed a
"substitute for internet access service".

234: "(12a) "net neutrality" means the principle according to which all
internet traffic is treated equally, without discrimination, restriction
or interference, independently of its sender, recipient, type, content,
device, service or application"

235: "(15) "specialised service" means an electronic communications
service optimised for specific content, applications or services, or a
combination thereof, provided over logically distinct capacity, relying
on strict admission control, offering functionality requiring enhanced
quality from end to end, and that is not marketed or usable as a
substitute for internet access service"


Next, the Council may either accept the Paliament version or propose its
own changes. I will let you know about the preliminary schedule one I
figured it out myself.

Dimi


[1]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+AMD+A7-2014-0190+234-236+DOC+PDF+V0//EN




2014-04-03 18:11 GMT+02:00 Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov <
dimitar.parvanov.dimitrov at gmail.com>:

> I am travelling now, so I can't post the relevant AMs here now, but it
> looks like they closed most loopholes and likely zero services.
>
> Will write again later.
>
> Dimi
> Le 3 avr. 2014 17:55, "Yana Welinder" <ywelinder at wikimedia.org> a écrit :
>
> The EP adopted the proposal today[1], but I haven't had a chance to review
>> the final language yet.
>>
>> Best,
>> Yana
>>
>> [1]
>> https://www.laquadrature.net/en/net-neutrality-a-great-step-forward-for-the-free-internet
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 7:49 AM, Bence Damokos <bdamokos at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Dimi,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the report, very informative as always.
>>>
>>> Have you had a chance to look at the vote on net neutrality in
>>> Parliament today and see what the Parliament's version looks like in the
>>> end?
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Bence
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 6:50 PM, Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov <
>>> dimitar.parvanov.dimitrov at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> #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]
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Advocacy_Advisors mailing list
>>> Advocacy_Advisors at lists.wikimedia.org
>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Advocacy_Advisors mailing list
>> Advocacy_Advisors at lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors
>>
>>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/advocacy_advisors/attachments/20140403/8db360c4/attachment.html>