Policy Observatory

A few weeks ago, the European Parliament had a strong position on net neutrality after adopting its first reading of the Telecoms Single Market Regulation in April. Meanwhile, the Council does not have an agreed position on the subject. Also, since the beginning of November, the new European Commission has taken office, with “better regulation” at the centre of its stated priorities. However, despite the efforts of the Parliament to improve the previous Commission's net neutrality proposals, there are persistent rumours that the new Commission may withdraw it.

EDRi has re-launched their campaign platform savetheinternet.eu and they ask everyone to play their part. They also wrote to the Council of the EU and issued a press release.

The Dutch government has ruled out ending roaming charges in the Benelux earlier than the EU deadline of 15 June 2017. In a briefing to parliament, Dutch economic affairs minister Henk Kamp said it was neither realistic nor desirable to scrap the roaming surcharges earlier in the region.

On 12 August 2016, the federal government proposed legislation for a law adjusting the Telecommunications Act in the “Bundesrat”. The draft law seeks to implement regulation (EU) 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 laying down measures concerning open internet access and amending Directive 2002/22/EC on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks and services and Regulation (EU) No 531/2012 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union.

The German Federal Network Agency forbid certain aspects of the optional service “StreamOn” for their mobile phone contracts in order to enforce that consumers could make use of the “roam-like-at-home” principle. Currently, the data volume used by StreamOn in EU countries was divided from the overall volume included in the phone contract. According to the Federal Network Agency, this was violating the EU rules on roaming and net neutrality.