Amendments in the European Parliament to the "Telecoms Package" 1 may allow operators to take control of their customer's usage of the Net. According to amendments pushed by AT&T, "network management practices" could be used to discriminate what content, services and applications users could access and use. Such "net discrimination" causes great risks to the very structure of Internet, and its innovation and growth models. It is also a massive threat to user's rights and freedoms. Who would want this for Europe?

On Feb 19th will officially begin the second reading of the "Telecoms Package" in the European Parliament. In reality, at the very same moment, a political agreement may be reached after ongoing opaque negotiations between the rapporteurs, the Commission and the Council. Insights from the Parliament reveal that extremely disturbing provisions2 defended by telecom operators, and mainly the US giant AT&T3, might get through. Using the intentionally vague wording of "network management policies", operators may be authorised to get total control of the network and their users' activities.

The Greens in the European Parliament organised a conference on Wednesday 19 February on internet policy concerning the Telecom package and the Medina report.

Several groups and inviduals, comprising thousands of EU citizens, have formed a dynamic coalition, the "Open Net Coalition" to stop the European Parliament from adopting these discriminative measures. In a letter to all Parliamentarians, signed by the Free Knowledge Institute, the Telecom policymaking is criticised and constructive critique is offered.

1. Revision of five directives regulating electronic communication networks in Europe. More info : http://www.laquadrature.net/Telecoms_Package

2. The proposed amendments: http://www.laquadrature.net/files/Industry%20Coalition%20proposed%20amendments%20to%20the%20USD%20directive.doc

3. The open letter to the European Parliament: http://freeknowledge.eu/files/Telecom_package_coalition_paper_en_WEB.pdf