Internet Policy in the EU

Latest news and information on the Internet policies of the European Union.

Data protection reform - guide — 25 January 2012, 15:13 CET

The European Commission has today proposed a comprehensive reform of the EU's 1995 data protection rules to strengthen online privacy rights and boost Europe's digital economy. Technological progress and globalisation have profoundly changed the way our data is collected, accessed and used. In addition, the 27 EU Member States have implemented the 1995 rules differently, resulting in divergences in enforcement. A single law will do away with the current fragmentation and costly administrative burdens, leading to savings for businesses of around €2.3 billion a year. The initiative will help reinforce consumer confidence in online services, providing a much needed boost to growth, jobs and innovation in Europe.

Communication on e-commerce - guide — 11 January 2012, 15:57 CET

The European Commission has adopted a Communication presenting 16 targeted initiatives aimed at doubling the share of e-commerce in retail sales (currently 3.4 %) and that of the Internet sector in European GDP (currently less than 3 %) by 2015.

New EU-US agreement on the transfer of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data - guide — 21 November 2011, 15:16 CET

The European Commission has initialled an agreement with the US that, if endorsed by the Council and the European Parliament, would replace the existing agreement from 2007 that currently regulates the transfer of Passenger Name Record (PNR) by air carriers to the US. The request to re-negotiate the existing PNR Agreement came from the European Parliament as part of its new role in the post-Lisbon era, and Commissioner Malmström started negotiations in December 2010 after receiving negotiating authorisation from the Council. The new text represents a substantial improvement over the existing 2007 Agreement and Commissioner Malmstrom intends to ask the green light of the Council and the European Parliament to sign it soon.

Recommendation on the digitisation of cultural material and its preservation online - guide — 29 October 2011, 00:23 CET

The European Commission has adopted a Recommendation asking EU Member States to step up their efforts, pool their resources and involve the private sector in digitising cultural material. This is seen as essential to make European cultural heritage more widely available and to boost growth in Europe's creative industries. The digitised material should be made available through Europeana, Europe's digital library, archive and museum.

Connecting Europe Facility - guide — 19 October 2011, 22:46 CET

The European Commission has today tabled a plan which will fund €50 billion worth of investment to improve Europe's transport, energy and digital networks. Targeted investments in key infrastructures will help to create jobs and boost Europe's competitiveness at a time when Europe needs this most. The "Connecting Europe Facility" will finance projects which fill the missing links in Europe's energy, transport and digital backbone. It will also make Europe's economy greener by promoting cleaner transport modes, high speed broadband connections and facilitating the use of renewable energy in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy. In addition the funding for energy networks will further integrate the internal energy market, reduce the EU's energy dependency and bolster the security of supply.

Public consultation on the application, monitoring and enforcement of non-discrimination obligations in electronic communications — 03 October 2011, 22:54 CET

The European Commission has launched two public consultations related to access for alternative operators to the fixed telephone and broadband networks of established operators. The consultations are part of Commission efforts to boost the Single Market for telecoms services by ensuring consistent and coherent approaches to regulating telephone and broadband networks in all Member States. The first consultation concerns non-discriminatory access for alternative operators to the infrastructure and services of dominant telecom operators. The second concerns the way national regulators calculate prices that operators have to pay for this wholesale access (cost-orientation remedies). The results will help the Commission to draft Recommendations for a consistent, investment-friendly application of non-discrimination and price control remedies.

Public consultation on costing methodologies for key wholesale access prices in electronic communications — 03 October 2011, 22:54 CET

The European Commission has launched two public consultations related to access for alternative operators to the fixed telephone and broadband networks of established operators. The consultations are part of Commission efforts to boost the Single Market for telecoms services by ensuring consistent and coherent approaches to regulating telephone and broadband networks in all Member States. The first consultation concerns non-discriminatory access for alternative operators to the infrastructure and services of dominant telecom operators. The second concerns the way national regulators calculate prices that operators have to pay for this wholesale access (cost-orientation remedies). The results will help the Commission to draft Recommendations for a consistent, investment-friendly application of non-discrimination and price control remedies.

Sweeps website — 29 September 2011, 16:37 CET

An "EU sweep" is an action co-ordinated by the European Commission, and carried out simultaneously by the national consumer enforcement authorities in the Member States, Norway and Iceland. In a given week each year, consumer authorities check hundreds of sites in a particular sector in order to see where consumer rights are being compromised or denied. When they find that a website does not comply with EU consumer law, they then contact the operator and ask for corrective action. Those who fail to correct illegal practices can face fines or be ordered to close their websites.

EU Sweep investigation - buying tickets online - guide — 29 September 2011, 16:42 CET

Buying tickets for music and sporting events on the internet is now much less likely to end in tears, following a crackdown on problematic websites which sold tickets to non-existent events or which failed to explain whether the buyer would get a refund or not, if the event was cancelled. 88% of the websites selling tickets for cultural and sporting events, checked for breach of EU consumer rules, now comply with EU law (compared with only 40% in 2010), and further improvements can be expected as cases are brought to the courts. The EU co-ordinated "Sweep" investigation was launched in September 2010 by national authorities in all Member States, Norway and Iceland. The problems identified included: incomplete or misleading information about the price of tickets; unfair terms and conditions; incomplete or misleading information about the trader. Sites have been corrected, usually voluntarily, but in some cases penalties were imposed.

2011 Implementation Report on the Protection of Minors and Human Dignity Recommendations — 13 September 2011, 16:19 CET

On 13 September 2011, the Commission adopted a Report analysing the implementation of the 1998 and 2006 Recommendations in the Member States – "Protecting Children in the Digital World".

Protecting Children in the Digital World - Commission Report on the Protection of Minors — 13 September 2011, 16:28 CET

How Member States are implementing EU Recommendations ensuring children can enjoy the digital world confidently and safely are reviewed by the European Commission in a report presented today. Member States and industry are increasingly making efforts to implement EU Recommendations dating from 1998 and 2006 on the protection of minors using audiovisual and online services. But the measures taken have been insufficient overall.

Implementation of the Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU — 22 June 2011, 00:11 CET

In June 2011 the European Commission has published the first batch of findings of a second independent assessment of the implementation of the Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU.

EU awards for creative reuse of open data - guide — 16 June 2011, 18:07 CET

European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes awarded prizes to the winners of the Open Data Challenge and Hack4Europe! competitions at the Digital Agenda Assembly being held in Brussels on 16th and 17th June 2011.

IPv6: Enabling the Information Society — 09 June 2011, 11:11 CET

European Commission website on Internet Protocol version 6. IPv6 provides a massive increase in web address space; a basis for developing and deploying applications that may be too complicated or too costly in today’s crowded IPv4 environment; users with the possibility of having their own networks that can be connected directly to the Internet; network security, integrated in the design of IPv6, which takes account of cyber security issues and mandates automatic encryption services, ensuring safer data communication exchange.

Europa website accessible for Internet Protocol version 6 users - guide — 08 June 2011, 23:10 CET

To mark World IPv6 Day on 8th June 2011, the European Commission has made its own website www.europa.eu accessible by Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) users (as well as IPv4 users). Due to increasing demand for new Internet services, the last remaining IPv4 address was assigned in February 2011. The uptake of IPv6 will make available a practically unlimited amount of Internet addresses to support the explosive growth of new services in the future. Many sectors, not yet present in the Internet, are preparing their move to it and will directly go to IPV6. IPv6 will therefore allow every citizen, network operator or organization to have as many IP addresses as they need to connect every conceivable device to the Internet: mobile phones, car navigation systems, home appliances (such as fridges, lamps, heating devices, plugs), industrial equipment, etc. Moving from IPv4 to IPv6 is therefore essential to let the internet evolve and create new applications and services.This MEMO explains what IPv6 is, why it is needed, how it is due to be deployed and the steps being taken by the Commission to encourage its deployment.

Future Internet Public Private Partnership — 05 May 2011, 17:42 CET

The launch of the Future Internet (FI) Public Private Partnership (PPP) Programme marks a major milestone in the development of Europe’s Internet of the Future. The committed FI PPP collaborators invite you to contribute and participate in the implementation of a shared vision of the Smart, Innovative and Inclusive Future Internet powered Europe!

Internet of the Future - guide — 05 May 2011, 12:12 CET

The first phase of a €600 million public-private partnership on the Internet of the Future (FI-PPP) has been launched by European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes. The partnership will support innovation in Europe and help businesses and governments to develop internet solutions that will be capable of managing the exponential increase in online data. Whilst so far we have experienced the Internet of connected computers, and connected people, the Internet is now going mobile and it will connect a whole range of machines and objects. The current Internet is simply not capable of managing these future data streams, nor is it able to provide the desired accuracy, resilience and safety. The partnership will explore eight areas where this data revolution could spur innovation and jobs in the mobile, software and service industries. The European Commission has made available € 300 million in funding over 5 years, with Europe's research organisations, public sector and industry committing an equal amount to this PPP. Projects launched today will together receive €90 million in EU funding (to be matched by other project partners). Boosting and focussing the EU's research, development and innovation efforts is a key element of the Digital Agenda for Europe.

Evaluation report of the Data Retention Directive — 19 April 2011, 17:06 CET

Data concerning telecommunications traffic through telephone networks and through the internet is, to some extent, retained (stored) by telecommunication service providers for their own commercial purposes (e.g., for billing purposes). The Data Retention Directive seeks to harmonise certain aspects of national rules on such storage. It requires telecommunication service providers to store traffic and location data regarding fixed and mobile telephony, internet access, email and telephony, for a period of at least six months (and no more than two years), and to make it available on request to law enforcement authorities for the purpose of investigation, detection and prosecution of serious crime and terrorism.

Information Society — 13 January 2013, 19:01 CET

EU loans and grants in the field of the Information Society

Online gambling in Europe - guide — 24 March 2011, 14:46 CET

On-line gambling is a fast developing business in Europe, with almost 15,000 websites already identified and total annual revenues exceeding EUR 6 billion in 2008 and expected to double in size by 2013. National legal frameworks vary enormously across the EU, with different rules applying to licensing, related on-line services, payments, public interest objectives, and the fight against fraud. In order to ensure legal certainty and effective protection of EU citizens in this fast-growing cross-border service activity, it is important to evaluate how possibly differing models can co-exist within the Internal Market. The primary aim of the Green Paper consultation, launched today, is therefore to obtain a facts-based picture of the existing situation in the EU on-line gambling market and of the different national regulatory models. The Commission seeks the views of stakeholders and wishes to collect detailed information and data on key policy issues such as organisation of on-line gambling services and enforcement of applicable laws; consumer protection and other relevant public policy challenges as well as commercial communications and payment services. Contributions to the consultation, which can be submitted until 31 July 2011, will determine the need for and form of any EU follow-up action in this field. Expert workshops on specific themes will be organised to complement this consultation.

EU proposal for passenger data to fight serious crime and terrorism - guide — 02 February 2011, 18:50 CET

The European Commission has presented a proposal for an EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) Directive to fight serious crime and terrorism. The proposal obliges air carriers to provide EU Member States with data on passengers entering or departing from the EU, whilst guaranteeing a high level of protection of privacy and personal data.

E-commerce disputes are limited by protective Jurisdiction says EU Court — 26 January 2011, 23:25 CET

The mere fact that a company offers their service via the Internet does not mean that they are being directed to consumers in other Member States, according to a recent ruling from the European Court of Justice. The ruling highlighted the importance of protective jurisdiction for the consumer in cases of commercial disputes.

Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings — 22 December 2010, 13:11 CET

To support efforts to fight human trafficking, Commissioner Malmström launched an anti-trafficking policy website on 21 December 2010. The website will become a one stop shop for practitioners as well as for academics, civil society and other interested persons. It will be a common gateway to information and contacts. The website includes EU policy and legislation, national information pages on all Member States and publications from a large number of organisations. A special section of the website is particularly aimed towards the public, with general information on human trafficking, interviews with people in the field and hotline number you can call if you are a victim of trafficking or if you want to report a crime. The principal language is English with abstracts in French and German to be available soon. Basic information for citizens will be available in all official languages.

Consumer contracts and Internet services — 28 December 2010, 20:12 CET

A recent case from the European Court of Justice has helped to clarify how the Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 will apply in relation to consumer contracts for internet services.

Contact lens law is clarified by EU Court — 26 January 2011, 20:10 CET

Banning the sale of contact lenses on the Internet on the grounds of consumer health is disproportionate to consumer health requirements, the European Court of Justice has ruled.