EBU welcomes adoption of clear and robust EU net neutrality guidelines
The adoption of guidelines by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) paves the way for effective net neutrality policies across the EU. National Regulators in Europe will be awarded with a robust and clear set of guidelines to enact EU net neutrality legislation.
EBU Deputy Head of European affairs Wouter Gekiere said: “A major building block of the Digital Single Market has been laid down. Despite significant pressure, BEREC has carefully devised clear instructions which fully reflect the spirit of the law adopted last year by the EU.”
He added: “With the guidelines, EU rules for net neutrality will underpin innovation and diversity by ensuring that content circulates openly on the Internet, without discrimination. This is very important for EU public service media organizations, which need to ensure that their online services can be efficiently distributed and easily accessed by all citizens.”
BEREC published the net neutrality guidelines on 30 August following a public consultation for which it received almost half a million contributions.
The EU Net Neutrality Regulation broadly reflects the key principles supported by the EBU:
- Ensure that the open Internet is the norm and specialized services the exception;
- The development of specialized services must not impair open Internet access;
- Clear transparency requirements to reinforce users’ trust in the open Internet;
- Clear rules ensuring that equivalent types of traffic need to be treated equally;
- Define the specific cases in which network operators can manage Internet traffic;
- Prevent undue content blocking or discrimination.