Marietje Schaake, on behalf of the ALDE Group – Mr President, we have heard a lot about rules. I want to say a bit about the gist of the debate on this resolution and the context in which it is taking place.
The internet and technologies have changed people’s lives around the world, empowering them to access information, to express themselves freely, to assemble and to document human rights violations, for example; and for businesses and entrepreneurs, too, the opportunities are very exciting. With the help of technology, it is easier to challenge monopolies, including powers that have traditionally lain in the hands of government and media.
At the same time we have to be careful that no new monopolies emerge.
Revolutionary change never comes without protest from those with a vested interest: businesses that want to secure their profitable models; governments that want to control people.
Multinational organisations are the new arena for battles of this kind. The International Telecommunications Union may have been a technical and somewhat obscure organisation dealing with standards, but these standards are increasingly being used in political fights and in the re-territorialisation of the internet in the grip of nation states, and the standards are also being tweaked to protect business models.
Under the guise of fighting spam, speech has been stifled; and, in the name of cyber security, online surveillance has dramatically increased. Banning ‘voice over Internet Protocol’ services hampers free speech by criminalising it, as in Africa, or throttling it, as was the case in the Netherlands – which is why my party pushed for enshrining net neutrality in law.
Our resolution addresses some of the most urgent concerns relating to internet governance. Some argue that this is actually a contradiction in terms, but what is certainly true is that the internet has developed into the fruitful platform it is today without much regulation.
Today we are talking specifically about the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which will host the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai, and it makes sense to update the system of regulation because this has not been done for a very long time. However, we should bear in mind that the ITU’s recommendations are non-binding documents that promote best practices.
Each of the 27 EU Member States has a vote, and if the EU wants to be a global player – if we want our voice to be heard – we must speak out loudly as one, and we should further the development of the internet as a truly public sphere in which fundamental freedoms are guaranteed.
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