Policy Observatory

The public online consultation on the draft “Dichiarazione dei diritti in Internet” (Declaration of Rights on the Internet) proposal ended on 31 March 2015. The text was drafted by a special Commission of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and it was initially scheduled to last until the end of February, however the consultation was extended for one more month. Approximately 14.000 visits were recorded, with a total of about 600 comments and proposals for integration. All comments are available here.    

Along with the online consultation, auditions with different stakeholders (private, public and non profit organizations) took place. Among the issues discussed during the auditions one can mention: freedom of expression; the relationship between the protection of rights offline and online; Internet as a common good; the authors’ rights and IPR protection; the right to Internet access for all; net neutrality; the right to be forgotten, etc.

The Declaration has also been discussed during various public events in February and March, including the Social Media Week in Milan (February 23-27), the Biennale della Democrazia held in Turin (March 25-29,). The reasons for the low level of participation in the public consultation and the need to produce such Declaration have also been debated. The Commission will draft a summary document containing the proposals and suggestions received by the public consultation and during the auditions; a further and improved version of the Declaration will be drafted. The final version of the Declaration might be the content of a motion of the Parliament to the Government.

On 26 June 2015, the Belgian EDRi member Liga voor Mensenrechten, together with a wide coalition of other Belgian human rights and consumer organisations, trade union confederations, and environmental and development NGOs, published a declaration asking for an immediate suspension of the negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that are currently ongoing between the United States (US) and the European Union (EU).

On July 28th 2015 the final version of the “Declaration of Rights on the Internet" was published in the media. The Declaration was drafted by a Committee established in July 2014 by the Italian President of the Chamber of Deputies and chaired by professor Rodotà. The text is composed by a preamble and 14 articles. A first draft of the Declaration was published in October 2014 and presented at the meeting of the members of the European Parliament in October 2014.

During the public consultation period the text was accessed more than 14.000 times and 590 opinions were received on the content of the Declaration. At the same time the audition of 46 relevant stakeholders took place during the consultation period. The final version of the Declaration will be presented at the next IGF meeting in Brazil.

The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Ms Boldrini, hopes that the content of the Declaration might be content of a unitary motion of the Parliament to the Government. The text of the Declaration (in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish) and other related documents are available here.