EU to decide extent of internet freedom Tuesday

The European Parliament is still debating its stance on net neutrality

The European Union (EU) is set to decide tomorrow whether it will consider protecting net neutrality.

The debate revolves around whether telecoms firms should be allowed intentionally to speed up or slow down traffic based on the service or application being used.

While operators claim that they want more control over availability in order to provide a better quality of service to users, opponents argue that they are motivated by a desire to favour their own services over competitors'.

The European Parliament voted in favour of giving broadband operators such rights in May, but the issue is part of wider legislation being debated in the EU.

Legislation known as the Telecoms Reform Package could not be agreed on in meetings between the European Parliament and the European Council, so it is now entering a third reading, or so-called 'conciliation procedure'. In standard EU procedure, the third reading of the package entails all the directives being opened up for debate again.

However, EU members are currently being questioned on the extent to which all directives will be considered.

Twenty-seven members of the European Parliament, and a Swedish presidency ambassador representing the 27 members of the European Council, will decide Tuesday on the scope of negotiations taking place with regards to the Telecoms Reform Package.

The Swedish presidency has already said that it intends to limit discussions on net neutrality, and adhere to the decision already taken by the European Parliament, allowing European broadband operators to restrict access to services and applications at their discretion. The presidency said that debating the issue again will waste too much time.

The 27 members of Parliament will meet at 9.30pm tonight to discuss whether they will pressure the Swedish presidency to rethink its decision.

French citizens rights group La Quadrature du Net (LQDN) has argued that the May decision by the European Parliament was heavily influenced by telecoms lobbyists, such as AT&T.

"The internet is much more important for the future of our societies than the efficiency of the EU legislative process," said Jérémie Zimmermann, LQDN spokesman.

LQDN has urged Europeans to call on their MEPs to preserve net neutrality. So far more than 70 non-governmental organisations from 15 member states have signed up to the agenda.

"Citizens from all member states have a few hours left to call all the members of the European Parliament delegation in the conciliation committee," said LQDN this morning.