blogg för Julia Reda

Weekly Meetings

Julia Reda — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 06:41:03 +0000

Språk Svenska

After an eventful week in Strasbourg, Amelia is back in Brussels for a week of committee meetings. This is her schedule:

Monday

12:30-13 Meeting with NGO Human Rights Without Frontiers Int'l

18:30-20:30 Huawei Summer Cocktail

Tuesday

14-14:30 Meeting of the shadow rapporteurs in the ITRE committee on the Data Protection Regulation

Wednesday

10-12 Working session of the Kangaroo Group's forum on intellectual property, counterfeit, contraband & organised crime

11-11:30 INTA committee meeting

11-13 European Parliament Free Software User Group presentation, sharing the source code for the European Parliament's Automatic tool for Amendments (AT4AM)

14-15 Meeting of the shadow rapporteurs on the Data Protection Directive

15-16 INTA committee meeting

16:30-17 Meeting with representative of the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU's Digital Economy Committee on Data Protection

Thursday

10-11 ITRE committee meeting and vote

15-18:30 ITRE meeting on telecoms issues

Weekly Meetings

Julia Reda — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 08:18:38 +0000

Språk Svenska

An important week ahead at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, with the vote on ACTA being scheduled for Wednesday, 4th of July. During her time in Strasbourg, these are Amelia's scheduled meetings:

Monday

15-15:30 Interview with French radio station on the European Pirate movement

16-17 Greens/EFA group meeting

Tuesday

15:30-16 Meeting with assistants of MEP Olle Schmidt to plan opening ceremony of a Raoul Wallenberg-room at the Parliament

16-16:30 Meeting with MEP Syed Kamall on a Digital Freedom Strategy in the EU Foreign Policy Opinion

16:30-18:30 Internet Core Group meeting

17-18 Welcome drink for new MEP Nils Torvalds, father of Linux kernel architect Linus Torvalds

19-21 Greens/EFA group meeting

Wednesday

10-10:30 Meeting with representative of Nokia on Data Protection Regulation

10-11 Shadow rapporteur meeting on the report on a Digital Freedom Strategy in EU Foreign Policy

14-14:30 Group photo of Swedish MEPs for European news office in Sweden

17-17:30 Meeting with representative of the Business Software Alliance on the Data Protection Regulation

18-20 Greens/EFA group meeting

Weekly Meetings

Julia Reda — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:12:25 +0000

Språk Svenska

This week, a visitors group from the Young Pirates Germany will be coming to Brussels to visit the institutions. These are Amelia's scheduled meetings for the week.

Monday

13-13:30 Interview with researcher from the University of Kansas

Tuesday

10-11 Meeting with representative of Hyundai Motor Group

12-13 Workgroup meeting on the Multiannual Financial Framework

14-15 Meeting of shadow rapporteurs on the Data Protection Directive

15:30-16 Meeting with the President of the European Milk Board

16:30-18:30 Greens/EFA group meeting

Wednesday

10:30-11 Interview for a Greek online news site

13-13:30 Meeting Young Pirates Germany visitors group

13:30-14 Meeting with Greens/EFA legal advisor on the directive on the re-use of public sector information (PSI directive)

16-16:30 Meeting with representative of Sky Broadcasting Group on the Data Protection Regulation

Thursday

8:30-9 Breakfast meeting at Sweden's permanent representation to the European Union on legal and domestic affairs

9-10 Meeting of the INTA committee's Monitoring Group for Japan

10:45-11:50 Moderation of Panel "Code as Law? Technological Approaches and Privacy-Driven Technology Development" during the Greens/EFA hearing on Data Protection for the Digital Age

12-14 Lunch with Japanese journalist

15-16 Meeting with marketing Association IAB Europe

20-22 Dinner with Young Pirates Germany visitors group

Friday

Speaking at "Open Here" festical at the Centre for Telecommunications Research, Trinity College Dublin

Weekly Meetings

Julia Reda — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 10:27:23 +0000

Språk Svenska

An important week of committee meetings is starting in Brussels, with the Avaaz petition Act on ACTA being presented in the PETI committee on tuesday and the vote on ACTA in the INTA committee on thursday. These are Amelia's meetings this week.

Monday

10:30-11:30 Meeting with representative of The International Office for Human Rights - Action on Colombia (OIDHACO)

12-13 Meeting with representative of Adobe

13-13:30 Meeting with representative of AT&T

17:15-17:45 Coffee with MEP Gunnar Hökmark

18:30-20 Launch of Communia's book "The Digital Public Domain" (Free PDF Download)

Tuesday

8-9:30 Meeting with the European Internet Foundation (EIF)

10-11:30 Presentation of Amelia's stance on the directive on the re-use of public sector information (PSI directive)

13-14:30 Meeting with a Swedish visitors group to the European Parliament

16:30-17 Meeting of the shadow rapporteurs regarding the INTA opinion on JURI report on the annual financial statement directive

19-20 Participation in the Forum for the Language Technology industry

Wednesday

14-17:30 Co-chairing a panel at the event "Building the European Digital Infrastructure"

Thursday

8-9:30 Working breakfast on internet freedom

9:30-10:30 Presentation of draft opinion against ACTA in the INTA committee

11-13:30 Participation in panel on Open Data and Open Access

14:30-16 Participation in panel at the event ACTA Seminar for journalists: "European Parliament and ACTA: reject or renegotiate?"

Impressions from Spaßburg

Julia Reda — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 13:56:27 +0000

Språk Svenska

While part of Amelia's work in the past week was explaining to her fellow MEPs the difference between infrastructure protection and intellectual property rights, I had the pleasure of learning about some of the European Parliament's unique infrastructure challenges first hand by accompanying Amelia to Strasbourg for the plenary week.

A Strasbourg box

Historical quirks combined with a political stalemate in the Council have made the European Parliament a truly multinational entity - with facilities in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxemburg. The parliament's administration is permanently located in Luxemburg and most of the MEPs' daily work takes place in Brussels. But once a month, the MEPs and their staff pack their belongings into military green boxes and make the four hour trip to the plenary session in Strasbourg, where the boxes are unpacked and, three days later, re-loaded and shipped back to Brussels. If this sounds somewhat unreasonable to you, do not despair: Through decisive austerity measures, the Union has managed to drastically reduce the costs of the commute to only about 150 million € per year.

The European Parliament in Strasbourg. CC-BY-SA J. Patrick Fischer

As inviting as the Strasbourg plenary building looks from the outside, the fact that it is only used for a few days out of every month seems to take its toll in many areas. One gets the feeling that the technical systems just don't run as smoothly as in Brussels, including the electronic entry badges, the internet connections and the office lights that switch off and on randomly. These troubles may not have anything to do with the building per se, but rather with the unwillingness of MEPs and assistants to have any problems fixed when they know they will only have to endure them for three more days.

We are by no means immune to this problem. The idea of doing a blog post about our randomly working office lights, including the flickering we could observe from other offices outside our window, actually came to us before someone had the brilliant idea of simply asking building maintenance to have a look at the problem before the next Strasbourg week (we did call them, eventually, and they were very friendly).

The corridor of the Greens/EFA group in Brussels

The temporary nature of the Strasbourg work also shows in the reluctance to truly inhabiting the offices. Whereas the corridor of the Greens/EFA group in Brussels is reminiscent of a college dormitory, the dark blue, red and grey hallways in Strasbourg are completely bare. One brave German MEP has decorated his office door with a plain sheet of paper that reads "Spaßburg" - fun castle.

The feared blue armchairs CC-BY-SA Rama

Lots of fun can be had with the idiosyncratic design of the Strasbourg parliamentary building. The strictly applied principle of "function follows form" offers delights such as elevators that are placed so far apart that they entice random groups of people to engage in games of moving chairs, and (speaking of moving chairs, these don't!) armchairs that may only be moved forwards and backwards, but not left or right. Getting lost in the Strasbourg parliament for the fifth time in a week, I couldn't help but feel like being in a Kafka novel. But I decided to just take this as another sign of the charmingly pan-european feel of the place. Some really do fall in love with the retro-futuristic architecture of the Strasbourg institutions. For those I recommend having a look at this foto essay on the Council of Europe building not far from the European Parliament.

Paying a visit, of course, is also highly recommended, but if you want to find a hotel room anywhere near the city center, try not to pick a Strasbourg week.

Book Launch: "The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture"

Julia Reda — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:04:49 +0000

Språk Svenska

On Monday, June 18, along with her colleague MEP Ioannis Tsoukalas, Amelia is inviting you to attend the launch of the book "The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture", edited by Melanie Dulong de Rosnay and Juan Carlos De Martin as an output of the Communia Thematic Network.

The book is under a CC Attribution license and the PDF can be downloaded here.

"The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture"
18 June 2012
18:30 - 20:00
European Parliament, Brussels, ASP Main Hall
(Ground Floor, in front of the Newspapers Quiosque)

18:30 Welcome: MEP Amelia Andersdotter
18:35 Introduction: MEP Prof. Ioannis Tsoukalas
18:45 The Digital Public Domain - presentation by editors: Melanie Dulong & Juan Carlos de Martin
19:00 Q&A and Discussion / Cocktails
19:45 Closing remarks: MEP Amelia Andersdotter

If you would like to attend the event and require access to the Parliament, please register with amelia.andersdotter-office@europarl.europa.eu before June 14, indicating your full name, date of birth and ID number.

More information on the book can be found on the Communia Association's website.

Weekly Meetings

Julia Reda — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:02:12 +0000

Språk Svenska

During the upcoming plenary week in Strasbourg, Amelia will attend the following meetings:

Monday

15:30-16 Meeting with MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht on Critical Infrastructure Protection

16-18 Greens/EFA Group meeting

Tuesday

9:15-9:45 Interview with greenyourope.eu blogger

15-17 Internet Core Group meeting

17-20 Greens/EFA Group meeting

Wednesday

10-10:30 Meeting with representatives of Telecom Italia on the Guidelines on Trans-European Networks

14-14:30 Meeting with Vodafone representative on the Data Protection Directive

Thursday

8-9 Meeting with Swedish Television SVT

10-11 Pirate Delegation meeting

10-12 Shadow rapporteur meeting on Reuse of Public Sector Information Directive (PSI)

Friday

9:30-11:30 Panel on IPv6 in Stockholm by European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG)

Weekly Meetings

Julia Reda — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 07:21:28 +0000

Språk Svenska

This is a list of Amelia's meetings in the coming week:

Monday

13-13:30 Interview with Europaportalen

14-15 Meeting of the Delegation for relations with the Korean Peninsula (DKOR)

15-17 Committee on Budgetary Control: Appointment of two Members of the European Court of Auditors: hearing of the candidates for membership

Tuesday

8:30-9 Breakfast Meeting at Sweden's permanent representation to the European Union: Department of Legal and Home Affairs

Wednesday

8:30-9:30 Breakfast meeting with Anders Wijkman, Swedish government-appointed special researcher for public procurement

11-11:30 ITRE coordination meeting

13-14 Coffee with MEP Marita Ulvskog

14-15 Shadow meeting on the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA)

Thursday

10-11:30 Technical Briefing on Union Trade Defense Instruments by the Commission

12-15 Roundtable discussion with NGOs and MEPs: Horizon 2020 for a more sustainable and fairer knowledge society

16-16:30 Meeting with representative of British Sky Broadcasting Group

Friday

10-10:30 Meeting with co-president and general secretary of the Green Group

Workshop on Data Protection Regulation

Julia Reda — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:11:55 +0000

Språk Svenska

On Tuesday, May 29, LIBE rapporteur Jan Philipp Albrecht, MEP of the Greens/EFA group, hosted a debate on the proposed Data Protection Regulation (downloadable here). Stakeholders from business to civil society and representatives of the EU institutions gathered in the vast Brussels plenary chamber of the EP to exchange their views and concerns on the future of data protection in the EU. The three panels treated in turn the scope and principles of the proposal, the data subject rights and the roles of Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) and Data Controllers. This report highlights some of the many issues brought forward by panelists and attending stakeholders alike.

Data Protection as a Fundamental Right

The first panel, consisting of Peter Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor, Peter Drunkenmöller, representative of the loyalty card system Payback and Joe McNamee of European Digital Rights organization EDRi, showed remarkable agreement that a regulation is indeed the best tool for addressing data protection on a European level. While Drunkenmöller emphasized the positive impact of a harmonized EU data protection regime for the expansion of businesses, McNamee welcomed the improvement of data protection implementation through the regulation. As he pointed out, data protection's inclusion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights constitutes a binding promise of the EU to its citizens to not just pay lip service to this right, but to effectively implement it in all member states.

Repeated attempts from business representatives in the audience to frame data protection as a consumer right rather than a fundamental right (as a Privacy International attendee correctly pointed out, consumer rights are fundamental rights) and to argue that fundamental rights were only supposed to protect the individual from the state and not require the state to regulate business were rightly shot down by the panel. Hastings pointed towards horizontal relations in fundamental rights, i.e. the obligation of the state to actively guarantee those rights.

Strengthening the Implementation of Data Protection

In order to further improve the implementation of the right to data protection, EDRi identified potential loopholes in the draft: The exemption of law enforcement from the scope of the regulation, which could be interpreted as including private security contractors, would give foreign governments the opportunity to access EU citizens' data through private companies. As McNamee pointed out, no foreign government should be able to circumvent EU law.

Another point of criticism was the vague nature of the legitimate interest clause that allows companies to process data without explicit consent. One national high court had ruled that even an ISP's snooping for copyright infringements by its customers was a legitimate interest. McNamee suggested to strengthen the clause to make sure that the need for consent to data processing could not be overridden by an ISP's contract with a customer.

Effects of the Data Protection Regulation on Media

Several media associations weighed in on the debate with differing concerns regarding the draft. A representative of the European Newspaper Association criticised that the exemption for journalists from parts of the data protection regime was left to the member states to implement. She suggested that the aim of balancing data protection with freedom of expression would be better served by making the exemption directly legally binding within the regulation.

A member of the Newspaper Publishers Association pointed towards the importance of the legitimate interest clause for newspapers' business models, defending the practice of sending addressed letters to households without consent, in order to acquire new customers. Hastings assured that the inclusion of a legitimate interest clause in the regulation was necessary due to a ruling of the European Court of Justice, but strong safeguards like the right to objection were necessary to protect citizens' rights.

Right to be Forgotten

The second panel on data subject rights featured some criticism of the newly introduced right to be forgotten. Marisa Jimenez of Google argued that in the digital environment, an individual user is not always just the data subject, but also often the data processor. Google proposed not to enforce the right to be forgotten against individuals, introducing a household exception to the text. In a similar vein, Nuria Rodriguez of the European Consumers' Organization (BEUC) argued that while the concept was to be welcomed in principle, the enforcement against individuals could collide with their freedom of expression, or could be grounds for companies to filter content. Leila Schilthuis, formerly associated with the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), warned that the enforcement of the right to be forgotten against individuals (e.g. teenagers sharing group photos) would be very difficult. In her opinion, the regulation should focus on effectively enforceable provisions in order not to mislead individuals, and to support awareness programs for children and their parents when dealing with personal data on the internet. To further protect minors from being targeted by online marketing, the regulation should include safeguards against the use of meta-data produced by minors.

Transparency

Rodrigez of BEUC drew attention to the importance of transparency to individuals in matters of data protection. She welcomed that the regulation asks for easily understandable information on the processing of data, but wanted to extend the principle of transparency and readability by making standard forms for privacy policies a requirement. The information a data controller has to provide to a data subject should also be extended to include the type of personal data collected.

Strengthening Data Protection Authorities

The last panel mainly focused on the role of Data Protection Authorities. Laetita Kroener of the Article 29 working party asked that the role of the European Data Protection Authority be strengthened vis-à-vis the Commission. Philip Schütz, a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation who is working on the comparative analysis of DPAs, identified two major factors in the efficiency of DPAs: independence and funding. As data protection must be followed by private companies as well as government institutions, DPAs, that are closer to government than to industry, must be organisationally and financially independent of the institutions they may be scrutinising.

As DPAs have to fulfill a wide variety of obligations, from complaint handling to education and advice, they require adequate resources, as outlined in the regulation. Schütz criticised that the term "adequate resources" may be open to interpretation by member states. Along with Kroener, he cautioned for stronger independence of the DPAs from the Commission.

A large number of diverse interests were voiced during the well-attended workshop, covering all of which would certainly exceed the reader's attention. Further information can be gathered from the opinions on the data protection reform issued by various parties.

Weekly Meetings

Julia Reda — Tue, 29 May 2012 11:55:02 +0000

Språk Svenska

The EP's committees are meeting in Brussels this week. Among other issues, the committees ITRE, LIBE and JURI will be voting on their opinions regarding ACTA. This is Amelia's schedule for the week:

Tuesday

15-17 Meeting at the Swedish representation to the European Union with, among others, the Swedish minister on EU affairs Birgitta Ohlsson

18-19:30 Debate on ACTA at the Institut d'études européennes of the ULB university (Brussels)

Wednesday

10-13 Attending panel discussion on EU regulation of fibre

13:30-15 ITRE working group

13:30-14:30 Meeting with Swedish interpreters

Thursday

9-10 Meeting on General Data Protection Regulation - first exchange of views and impact assessment

10-11:30 Technical briefing by the Directorate General for trade on Access of third-country goods and services to the Union’s internal market in public procurement and procedures supporting negotiations on access of Union goods and services to the public procurement markets of third countries

At the same time, the ITRE committee will be voting on Amelia's draft proposal on ACTA.

12:30-14:30 Event on cloud computing and new challenges for Data Protection, hosted by Privacy Platform in Cooperation with the Center for Democracy & Technology

15-15:30 Meeting with MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht & assistant on cybersecurity

17:30-18:30 Meeting with Eurocities representative

Friday

10-10:30 Interview with TV4

15-15:30 Coffee with representative from the Bellona Foundation