Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee on blog of VP Ansip: 'Net neutrality is critical for Europe's future'

Extracts of the post of Sir Tim Berners-Lee: "Today, though, a key element of the openness that underpins the Web and the broader Internet is under threat. I’m talking about ‘net neutrality’ - the principle that each ‘packet’ of data must be treated equally by the network. In practice, this means that there should be no censorship: the state should not restrict legal content from citizens, as guaranteed in Article 11 in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. It also means that there should be no restrictions based on economic motivations. A packet of data - an email, a webpage or a video call - should be treated the same no matter whether it is sent by a small NGO in Ljubljana or a FTSE 100 company in London.

"Binding net neutrality rules under consideration by the European Union (part of an omnibus proposal called the Telecoms Single Market Regulation) would do exactly that. The European Parliament made a clear and strong statement for net neutrality in their version of the legislation in Spring of 2014. Now it’s in the hands of the Council of the European Union to determine their position.

The Council is slated to conclude discussions around March 2015, but only if it stays high on the agenda of the incoming Latvian presidency. To keep net neutrality high on the political docket, tweet to the Latvian presidency (@eu2015lv) and let them know that citizens and business in the EU need net neutrality now, before online discrimination becomes the norm."

Commissioner Oettinger will be at the Berlin International Film Festival Berlinale on 5 February. He plans a blog post on this occasion.

On 10 February, it is Safer Internet Day: check out Digital Agenda for Europe and @DigitalAgendaEU for more information. Vice-President Ansip will write a blog post on this.