Tag: European Parliament

During the 5th hearing of Civil Liberties (LIBE) committee inquiry on massive electronic surveillance held on October 3rd, members of the European Parliament have condemned the “deplorable conduct” of the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) after their chief Sir Iain Lobban declined the invitation to collaborate to the investigations.

The 3rd hearing of the LIBE inquiry into massive electronic surveillance, held on September 24. MEPs called on the Commission to suspend the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP), an agreement that allows for transfer of bank data (from the SWIFT database) to the US authorities for the fight against terrorism and terrorist financing.

Last Thursday, after two years of delay, the European Commission published a proposal for the Regulation of the Telecom Single Market that promises Net Neutrality but delivers just the opposite.

More disappointing news from the Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes is spreading around Brussels. Contrary to previous statements made by the Commissioner, there are no clear network neutrality provisions contained in forthcoming Regulation for the Telecom Single Market, according to a leaked draft recently published by European Digital Rights (EDRi).

A week after Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes requested that the European Parliament help save European citizens’ “right to access the open internet by guaranteeing net neutrality” in a speech on May 30 in Brussels, Kroes avoided language that would have directly supporting net neutrality while speaking at a panel event organized by Access at the European Parliament.

Today, civil liberties groups from across Latin America sent a letter to the European Parliament, urging the lead Committee working on the Data Protection Regulation to protect the privacy of citzens in the EU and around the world.

Today a coalition of civil rights groups warned that citizens could be stripped of their right to privacy by dangerous EU Parliament proposals. The coalition — including Access, EDRi, Privacy International, Bits of Freedom, Panoptykon, La Quadrature du Net, Open Rights Group and Digitale Gesellschaft — released a report detailing the most dangerous amendments to the Data Protection Regulation and a website, nakedcitizens.eu where citizens can take direct action to contact Members of the European Parliament to demand that they protect their fundamental rights.

The European Parliament took a stand for fundamental rights when the Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) rejected a privacy-invasive European Commission proposal to allow the use of air travel Passenger Name Record (PNR) data.

The Industry, Research, and Energy (ITRE) Committee of the European Parliament recently voted through its Opinion on the Data Protection Regulation, sending a clear message to European citizens that a majority of the Committee believes the interests of large corporations should trump the protection of their fundamental right to privacy.

As the European Parliament debates new data protection reforms,US technology companies have arrived in Brussels to commence an unprecedented lobbying effort aimed at preventing strong regulation and weakening existing standards. Most troublingly, some of the draft legislative proposals have been copied and pasted directly from lobbying documents, evidence of the immense influence of US giants like Google and Amazon on European policy.