News and Research articles on Governmental

The European Court of Justice today decided against the EU legislator and declared the data retention directive of 2006 null and void. A historic judgement, many parties say, and it means that implementations have to be rolled back all over Europe.

On Thursday April 3, the European Parliament voted in favour of a legislative package to protect network neutrality and abolish mobile roaming fees within the European Union. The decision may set off a serious struggle between EU Council and Parliament.

The European Parliament has voted for a single data protection standard in the Union and passed both a regulation and a directive today. The Parliament wants to push the package (containing these two instruments), but has now to wait for member states to come to grips over their position.

The debate around internet governance is at full steam in advance of the Brazil's NetMundial conference in April. Especially so since academics have suggested privatising the management of critical internet resources and removing US oversight.

Turkish business leaders, internet researchers and the Council of Europe were quick to reply when Turkish President Abdullah Gül went on to sign a package of draconian internet laws on February 18. The new legislation matters, not only for Turkey.

Early warnings by German government officials at the Munich Security Conference proved true. On February 3, the International League of Human Rights in Germany, together with the Chaos Computer Club and civic group digitalcourage filed a criminal complaint against the German government for not acting on the mass surveillance by intelligence services.

On January 23, EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers met informally to harmonise their positions on the future European Data Protection Regulation. Broad consensus was reached on international aspects. Yet, the group missed a chance to move the package into the fast lane.

It is difficult to argue against measures that could prevent a 9/11-like attack in the US. However, many in the EU remain concerned about privacy and fundamental rights in general after the Snowden revelations. Conclusions from politicians on both sides illustrate the divergence.

The EU Data Retention Directive - which requests the retention of communication data of EU Citizens - is “as a whole incompatible” with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, determines Europe's top lawyer. What happens now?

“Digital” is written big in the coalition agreement, which was signed to give way to the new German government. Will this propell Germany onto the front seat in international internet politics.

According to the fourth edition of the eGovernment Monitor, released on November 28, the number of users of eGovernment services in Sweden in 2013 was 53 percent, compared to 70 percent in 2012. On average, the decline in all monitored countries was as high as 8 percent.

After a first on Slovenia, here is our second in our series on internet policy innovation in small European countries. Finns are moving fast and experimenting with crowdsourced legislation.

Just a week ago, the first new TLDs were pushed to the root zone of the internet. Just in time for the Munich Conference on New Top-Level Domains 2013. But what do all the new names on the net impact?

Access to the net, while a core topic of the Internet Governance Forum, has seen more reporting than big visionary pictures. Universal access remains a huge challenge.

The Bali Internet Governance Forum is the first IGF since Edward Snowden has made revelations about the United States National Security Agency's spying activities. It's face off time, many believe.