The European Commission this morning launched a consultation on key questions regarding the contentious issues of net neutrality and the open Internet. Until 30 September 2010, all interested parties – meaning service and content providers, consumers, businesses and researchers – are invited to respond to the consultation.

"Paris, September 16th 2009 - We Must Protect Net Neutrality1 in Europe! Organizations from all around Europe share their concern of seeing Net Neutrality being sacrificed during the conciliation procedure of the directives of the EU Telecoms Package.

European freedom and rights groups are concerned about the deal Neelie Kroes is getting after lobbyists got involved

«Civil liberties groups La Quadrature du Net, European Digital Rights (EDRi), AK Vorrat, and Netzpolitik.org are urging the European Parliament to heed advice given by the European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx and scrap plans dubbed "voluntary data retention"...»

Evidence is already widely available that European operators engage in harmful practices, as demonstrated by citizen reports of dozens of breaches to Net neutrality on the RespectMyNet.eu platform.

By a remarkable vote of 633 to 13, the Parliament rebuked European negotiators who have been drafting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in a series of confidential meetings around the globe. No version of the document has been disclosed by the participants, which include the United States, the European Commission, Japan, and Canada.

At a time when the EU Commission investigates the anti-competitive behaviour of a market-dominant player, the European Parliament (EP) still imposes that same specific software choice on both the European Union's citizens and its own MEPs.

Members of the European Parliament and their assistants are participating in this year's Document Freedom Day, a 'grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general', according to an announcement on the organisation's website.

Participative democracy relies increasingly on the ability of citizens and stakeholders to access public information and to communicate with officials and elected politicians electronically. To highlight the impact of open standards on democracy, the Greens/European Free Alliance organized a half day event at the European Parliament in Brussels on April 17, 2008.