The Telecoms Package of reforms was first proposed by the
European Commission in 2007 but has proved controversial. Agreement
was finally reached between the Commission, Parliament and Council
of Ministers earlier this year on almost all of the proposals.
The Parliament, though, reintroduced a previously-rejected
amendment demanding that countries require court oversight of any
attempts to cut off people's internet access because of alleged
copyright infringements.
That amendment was rejected and, with it, the whole Telecoms
Package. No single part of it could progress unless all parts of it
did.
Negotiators on behalf of the Parliament and the Council met
earlier this month, though, and agreed a compromise text. That text
was agreed by a full meeting of the Council late last week and the
deal's only hurdle is a plenary session of the European Parliament
tomorrow.
If MEPs give the new Package the green light tomorrow it will
enter into force in December and must become law in EU member
states by June 2011.
The text no longer says that disconnections cannot take place
without the involvement of a court. It now says that there must be
a "prior fair and impartial procedure … [and] a right to an
effective and timely judicial review".
"Any measures taken by Member States regarding access to or use
of services and applications through telecoms networks must respect
the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, as they are
guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and in general principles of EU
law," said a Commission statement outlining the contents of the new
text.
The Parliament had been informed that its demands for court
oversight over-stepped the powers available to any part of EU
government.
"The Parliament has had legal advice from its own legal service
that Amendment 138 was not legally admissible," a Parliament source
told OUT-LAW.COM before negotiations with the Council took place.
"It was told that it went beyond Community competency."
If passed by MEPs, the Package will also introduce a
controversial new law on websites' use of cookies. It says that
website operators must receive the consent of users before putting
a cookie on their machines.
Technology law expert Struan
Robertson of Pinsent Masons has called that law "breathtakingly
stupid".
"There has been almost no fuss about this little law, despite
the harm it could do to advertising, the lifeblood of online
publishing," he wrote
recently. "It also threatens to irritate all web users by appearing
at every new destination like an over-zealous security guard."
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