This Weekend Amelia and I have been to Prague for the PPI conference.  The conference made quite a splash in media all over Europe. Spiegel online included a short text on the speech Amelia held at the conference:

Amelia Andersdotter, a Swedish Pirate who has represented the party in the European Parliament since November 2011, preferred to discuss mobile phone roaming fees and tax issues. Sporting a blue sweater and a cartoon t-shirt, the 24 year old held out a few pages torn out of a notepad, with the pages trembling lightly in her hand. She appeared accessible and nothing like the cliché of the shielded EU parliamentarian -- a fact which might help explain the Pirates' success.

Hopefully I'll have the time to write more about Prague later on this week.

European Parliament produced fruitful discussion on the Internet issues and in particularly ACTA.

The first meeting was held on Tuesday, based on ´New forms of online advertising´, as current trademark laws are complex and impose particular burden on SME´s (Small-medium enterprises). European Commission is proposing to harmonise trademark regulations acrossEurope, between different national laws. So that small and medium size companies could take full advantage of access to the global market that the Internet offers. 

The same day Green Group discussed potential initiative for the ´Internet Bill of Rights´, which would act as a signal to which principles Green group adheres to. The idea of ´Internet Bill of Rights´ comes from publics rising concerns regarding government surveillance of the Internet. This has motivated many of the mainstream politicians to jump on the ´Internet issue´ bandwagon, which means that not only members of the Pirate Party will look after the online interests of the European citizens, but also many other politicians from the mainstream parties will take more active role in deliberations. By no means is this a negative outcome, as long as politicians fully understand the issues they are voting on, it should make the debate more democratic. Bringing digital issues to the fore of the agenda, was one of the initial objectives for the Pirate party.

European Commission has initiated reforms to the Data protection directive and regulations for the public and private sector. Current patchwork of national rules with current European legal framework, were drawn up in the early 90s and came into force in 1995, at the time only 1% of European population were using the internet. These outdated laws put uncertainty on creating a strong single digital market, and require an update. Update to stronger data protection should increase consumer trust in their privacy online being safer, which will lead to further growth in digital economy of Europe.

European Commission expects "clear and precise identification of all the relevant elements underpinning the right to be forgotten online", to enhance data security, increase accountability of data handling, and provide real "teeth" to the sanctions for infringements of your online privacy. 

Regulations will be binding not only for the private sector, but the directive will also apply to the public sector, as cross-border data transactions between authorities, as well as for domestic use such as police, judiciary, and medical purposes.

Approach to the data protection is planned to be comprehensive, horizontal with an aim to harmonize data protection law. This should reduce red-tape and beurocracy, the deliberation process has only just began and commission is willing to listen to all stakeholders involved via open meetings, workshops. New legal framework should not be seen as an obstacle to the flow of data, but compliment it by increasing consumer trust and simplifying it.

The main change will be ensuring that "right to be forgotten" responsibility will rest on the shoulders of private companies this time.  

While 29th of March, is also known as a Document Freedom Day, which is celebrated world-wide, for this occasion Green Party-EFA held an annual event at the European Parliament, supported by Free Software Foundation Europe.

Nu när jag har börjat som Amelias kommunikatör kommer jag att behöva en arbetsgrupp som kan hjälpa mig i mitt arbete med Amelias kommunikation. Jag kommer arbeta mycket med att klippa webisodes och skriva pressmeddelanden, och kommer behöva hjälp med en hel del kring det, allt från att bolla idéer för nya avsnitt till att arbeta med översättning av hemsidan och andra texter till olika språk, göra subtitles till de episoder som kommer ut och hitta grym cc licensierad musik. Arbetsgruppen är tänkt att vara ett ganska litet men effektivt kluster där de som känner att de har något de kan hjälpa till med kan vara med. Jag kommer att med jämna mellanrum be om hjälp kring olika uppdrag men givetvis uppmuntras även egna initiativ. Allt som kan stärka Amelias röst eller förbättra vårt arbete är positivt!

Tanken med en sådan här grupp är inte bara att hjälpa mig i mitt arbete utan även ge er medlemmar en möjlighet att hjälpa till med just sådant som ni är bra på och därmed kunna ta tillvara på alla förmågor som finns spridda i Piratpartiet. Vi kommer främst hålla till i Skype och troligen kommer klustret vara mest aktivt mot kvällstid. Det behöver inte enbart vara sådant jag nämnt ovan, utan känner du att du har några färdigheter som du kan tillföra samt har tid och möjlighet, maila en kort presentation av dig själv och vad du vill hjälpa till med hit: amelia.andersdotter-office@europarl.europa.eu .

Amelia Andersdotters Brysselkontor utlyser härmed praktikplatser på hennes kontor i Europaparlamentet i Bryssel. Om du studerar kommunikationsvetenskap, juridik eller något relevant samhällsvetenskapligt ämne och vill få en bredare förståelse för hur den Europeiska unionen fungerar är du välkommen att söka en tjänst som praktikant. Den första praktikplatsen kommer tillträda i höst och sedan är målsättningen att ha 1-2 praktikanter här kontinueligt fram till och med våren 2014.

Praktikplatserna kan vara 3-6 månader långa och om du är antagen till ett program vid din högskola finns det ibland möjlighet att räkna in praktiken inom ramen för din utbildning. Kontakta den programansvarige vid din högskola för att få reda på om så är fallet vid din utbildning. Praktik inom ramen för ett program finansiseras via CSN och vid fristående praktik utgår ett visst arvode från Amelias kontor för att täcka levnadsomkostnaderna under praktikperioden. Skicka ansökan med CV och ett personligt brev samt under vilka perioder du är intresserad av praktikplats till mattias.bjarnemalm@europarl.europa.eu. Notera i mailet om du ämnar göra praktik inom ramen för ditt program eller fristående.

The European Parliament has decided to continue their political scrutiny of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), with the intention of reaching a decision before summer. Today the Committee for International Trade decided not to ask the Court of Justice of the European Union if ACTA is compatible with the framework agreements.

- This is clearly a victory for those opposing ACTA , says Amelia Andersdotter, Pirate Party member of the European Parliament and responsible for the political process in the parliament's committee on Industry, Research and Energy. The parliament has already received many indications that ACTA is undesirable. The innovative information industries of Europe, not to mention the citizens of all the member states could not have made their skepticism clearer to their public representatives had they tried. The freedom of establishment, freedom of expression and access to medicines is at stake. This choice by the parliament to take the political and economical issues raised by the agreement seriously is very positive. Now we have shown that we are an institution capable and willing to mantle political responsibility, and capable and willing also of addressing the concerns of Europeans.

My name is Edvinas and I had a lucky opportunity to be an intern at Ms Amelias office in Brussels. Last year I graduated with International Relations BA degree from Keele University and will be assisting with work at ‘Committee on International Trade’.

I was born in Lithuania, Kaunas, and permanently  lived there till the age of 11. Next 11 years, second half of my life I spent studying in Britain. As soon as I graduated I moved to Brussels, Belgium, to gain practical work experience.

My interests primarily lie in the sectors of internet and technology, however you can find me researching a wide variety of topics, from health to energy industry. I’m very passionate about the developments in the information economy and the impact of social media upon the democratic process and public affairs.

In the future I plan to pursue further academic research into the legal aspects of the EU actorness towards international organisations with emphasis on the United Nations. At University I was a member of Model UN society, where I had the priviledge to hold a position as a treasurer and was later provided with an opportunity to participate at Oxford MUN, representing South Korea.

Would describe myself as a bit of current affairs media, publishing geek, I adore quality journalism, news, magazines. In my spare time I enjoy observing public affairs environment, especially of British and Lithuanian politics. As well as promoting release of public data to improve public policy making and services for the citizens. 20th century political ideologies never interested me and hence I was never active in party politics, however I follow developments of Pirate Party movement very closely, especially Lithuanias Pirate Party, which is just getting established. My belief is that Pirate Party movement is different, its a 21st century kind of political movement.

 EU Data retention directive in Germany

 Germany tries to find a compromise on its implementation of the EU data retention directive but risks to be sanctioned by the European Commission.

 The liberal German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger suggests a "quick freeze" of data under court statement, before considering longer retention and transmission to investigators, instead of the 6 month automatic compulsory data storage from ISPs and Telecom firms required by the EU directive.

 In Sweden a new data retention law that complies with the directive requirements was passed yesterday.

 Germany freezes the idea of a two-strike online piracy law

 Last week the negotiations in Berlin between the righholders and internet providers representatives, under the supervision of the government, failed  on a possible two-strike online piracy law, after a proposal from the Ministry of Economy. The representative of the German association of the internet economy eco said he was satisfied with the negotiations (non)outcome, as 'warning notices are without any doubt inGermany against data protection and constitutional rights'.

Fresh from Romanian broadcaster ProTV, an ACTA special from România te iubesc (no subtitles) featuring yours truly, the Romanian Partidul Piraților, Constantin Vică, and two of my Romanian colleagues.