AfterDawn: Tech news

EU: Council of Ministers pushes Net Neutrality

Written by James Delahunty @ 14 Dec 2011 1:02

EU: Council of Ministers pushes Net Neutrality Pressure put on European Commission.
The Council of Ministers has called for the principles of Net Neutrality - that all traffic on networks be treated equally - to be made into law. The council is pressuring the European Commission to start making moves in that legislative direction.

The Council of the European Union consists of ministers from all 27 member states of the EU. The agenda of the Council determines what minister attends from each state, so anything to do with agricultural policy would dictate that a member states' minister for agriculture attend, for example. The Council acts as a legislative body alongside the European Parliament.

The European Parliament has also heavily backed the concept of Net Neutrality in the past.

The European Commission ordered a study to be carried out by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (Berec) into abuses of network neutrality, which turned up examples such as ISP's blocking VoIP services, or giving automatic prioritization to its own services.



"EU member states have today called an open internet a priority for national parliaments. Net neutrality has fast become a key cause of our times," Monique Goyens, director general of the European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC), said.

"Stringent measures have been called for and we expect the commission to protect Europe's consumers by listening up. For real results the ball is now in their court."

Previous Next  
Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads (16 Mar 2024 4:31)
VLC Media Player, the versatile video-software powerhouse, has achieved a remarkable feat: it has been downloaded over 5 billion times.
1 user comment
Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit (19 Dec 2023 11:09)
Google settled its lawsuit in September 2023, and one of the settlement terms was that the way applications are installed on Android from outside the Google Play Store must become simpler. In the future, installing APK files will be easier.
8 user comments
Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments

News archive