The European Parliament is censoring a document that citizens need to see because it represents the crushing of their rights to access Internet services and applications. Most importantly, the text, from the European Parliament's legal services, does NOT answer the policy question about copyright enforcement and Hadopi-style administrative justice. 

The rapporteur, Catherine Trautmann,  is called into question. Is she doing the Council's bidding? Is  she deliberately ignoring  requests from  colleagues on the Conciliation committee?  

The text the European Parliament does not want you to see is a document containing the European Parliament's legal opinion on Amendment 138. It is  now being circulated in the European Parliament, marked 'confidential'. However, the key parts of the document have

Greens, Socialists and Liberals stand up for the principle that opposes copyright enforcement on the Internet.  Mrs Trautmann just wants to do what the Council wants. And Viviane Reding's head of cabinet explains  a new declaration on net neutrality.

More information is now emerging about events in the European Parliament's conciliation process on the Telecoms Package.

Green, Socialist and Liberal MEPs have called for the principles in

EU  lawyers say that Amendment 138 has to go because of a legal technical problem. And  they  insist on  a poor  replacement that will do nothing to stop the imposition of copyright enforcement measures. Given that we know  the political agenda  for both copyright and Internet restrictions, shouldn't they do better?

***Update ( Monday ) -  on the day the legal services were supposed to send their opinion in respect of Amendment 138, the European Parliament's email is down, giving MEPs a small taste of what it means to be cut off on a digital network.  It also means they will not have proper time to consider the legal services' opinion. How can they do their job for European citizens, when they cannot get the information in a timely way? ***

***Further update (Monday evening) - the document was released this afternoon, but was not public. The EU does not want citizens to know how it will restrict  the Internet. ***

**(Tuesday morning) La Quadrature du Net are calling on EU citizens to protest. The European Parliament legal services text is online here. ***

The European Parliament's legal services will deliver their opinion on  Monday in respect of Amendment 138, the Telecoms Package amendment that seeks to protect Internet users rights in respect of copyright enforcement and Internet restrictions. 

The Parliament's lawyers  are expected to say that Amendment 138 does not comply with

It is characteristic of leaders of  totalitarian states that they tell their cititzens a falsehood as if it were a truth. It is not something we expect of European Commissioners.

But Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society, has excelled herself. Speaking yesterday at a breakfast hosted by the IT industry association, EDIMA, she must have sent some of that expensive Brussels coffee spluttering across the table.

In her speech entitled "The Digital

The Council of Ministers  has  told the European Parliament last night  that it wants Amendment 138 dropped and its own text incorporated. And it wants an apology!

The first trialogue  meeting of the  Third Reading of the Telecoms Package was held last night.  This was a meeting of the negotiating teams for the Conciliation process, from all three EU institutions - Parliament, Council and Commission.  From what I understand, the Council has said that