Letter save-am138-mister-minister

Version française

[Mr or Mrs Minister of <function>,]

On November 27th, the Council of the European Union will examine the
project reforming electronic communications, also known as “Telecom
Package”, as amended by the European Parliament in its first reading
last September 24th.

The issue of protecting fundamental rights of European citizens using
internet has become through last months one of the major matter at
stake of this law proposal.

After lengthy debates in the refered committees, and after the
intervention of the EDPS, the independant European authority in
charge of the protection of personal data, the European Parliament
adopted a series of amendments to the Commission proposal. The MEPs
wanted to guarantee that the current level of protection of the
european citizens will be at least maintained by the Member States in
the future.

But the main safeguard introduced by the Parliament − amendment 138
adopted by 88% of the MEPs − might be removed by the Council on
November 27th, following a request from the French government. The
French economic newspaper La Tribune has announced that French
government has already managed to convince every other Member State
to refrain from voting or to vote in favor of the removal of this
amendment.

Nevertheless, as the European Commission underlined in an official
memo, this amendment is “an important restatement of key legal
principles of the Community legal order, especially of citizens'
fundamental rights. It leaves Member States sufficient scope for
reaching a fair balance between different fundamental rights, in
particular the right to respect for private life, the right to
protection of property, the right to an effective remedy and the
right to freedom of expression and information.”

In its memo, the Commision stated that it would not ask for its
removal, contrary to Nicolas Sarkozy's request to the President of
the Commission.

The only reason for France to request the removal of this amendment
is that it is opposed head on to the French law proposal “Creation
and Internet” that aims at creating a special court for the Internet
users whose account has been used to realize unauthorised copies of
music and movies. Also, it is about for France to legalize afterwards
an administrative decision authorizing private companies to carry out
some police missions on Internet, thus opposing the European policy
on personal data.

Therefore, we ask you to oppose the removal of amendment 138 in order
to respect, as the European Commision has done, the democratic vote of
the European Parliament who has insisted on underlining that fundamental
democratic principles, such as the principle of separation of powers
or the principle of proportionality, also apply on Internet, at a
time where the Member State assuming the presidency of the European
Union seems to have forgotten it.

Failing which, everyone might assess your commitment in the
construction of an Europe that protects the fundamental rights of its
citizens and the reality of European Democracy.

Hoping that you will be able to act upon this issue, Yours Citizenly

[signature]

[1] For the record, the purpose of French law proposal “Creation and
Internet” is to transfer repressive powers of the judiciary authority
concerning copyright litigations to an administrative authority.
Yet, amendment 138 underlines that such transfers could only be
allowed when public security is threatened. Which is certainly not
the case for an alleged copyright infringement.