1.

Addresses the following recommendations to the Council: Full and safe access to the Internet for all (a) participate in efforts to make the Internet an important tool for the empowerment of users, an environment which allows the evolution of ‘bottom up’ approaches and of e-democracy, while at the same time ensuring that significant safeguards are established as new forms of control and censorship can develop in this sphere; the freedom and protection of private life that users enjoy on the Internet should be real and not illusory; (b) recognise that the Internet can be an extraordinary opportunity to enhance active citizenship and that, in this respect, access to networks and contents is one of the key elements; recommend that this issue be further developed on the basis of the assumption that everyone has a right to participate in the information society and that institutions and stakeholders at all levels have a general responsibility to assist in this development, thus attacking the twin new challenges of e-illiteracy and democratic exclusion in the electronic age (12); (c) urge Member States to respond to a growing information-aware society and to find ways of providing greater transparency in decision-making through increased access by their citizens to information stored by governments in order to allow citizens to take advantage of that information; apply the same principle to its own information; (d) ensure together with other relevant actors that security, freedom of expression and the protection of privacy, as well as openness on the Internet, are approached not as competing goals, but instead are delivered simultaneously within a comprehensive vision that responds adequately to all these imperatives; (e) ensure that the legal rights of minors to protection from harm, as prescribed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and as reflected in EU law, are fully reflected in and across all relevant actions, instruments or decisions relating to strengthening security and freedom on the Internet; Strong commitment to combating cybercrime (f) invite the Presidency of the Council and the Commission to reflect on and develop a comprehensive strategy to combat cybercrime, pursuant, inter alia, to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, including ways in which to address the issue of ‘identity theft’ and fraud at EU level in cooperation with both Internet providers and user organisations, as well as the police authorities dealing with IT-related crime and to put forward a proposal on how to create awareness campaigns and prevent such crime, while at the same time ensuring that the use of the Internet is safe and free for all; call for the creation of an EU desk for assistance to victims of identity theft and identity fraud; (g) encourage reflection on the necessary cooperation between private-public players in this field and on the enhancement of law enforcement cooperation, along with appropriate training for law enforcement and judicial authorities, including training on issues of fundamental rights protection; recognise the need for shared responsibility and the benefits of co-regulation and self-regulation as efficient alternatives or complementary instruments to traditional legislation; (h) ensure that the work undertaken in the framework of the ‘Check the Web’ project and the recent initiatives aimed at improving the circulation of information on cybercrime, including by the setting-up of national alert platforms and a European alert platform for reporting offences committed on the Internet (creation of a European platform for cybercrime by Europol) are necessary, proportionate and appropriate and accompanied by all the necessary safeguards; (i) urge Member States to update legislation to protect children using the Internet, in particular in order to criminalise grooming (online solicitation of children for sexual purposes), as defined in the Council of Europe Convention of 25 October 2007 on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse; (j) encourage programmes to protect children and educate their parents as set out in EU law with respect to the new e-dangers and provide an impact assessment of the effectiveness of existing programmes to date; in doing so, take particular account of the online games which primarily target children and young people; (k) encourage all EU computer manufacturers to pre-install child protection software that can be easily activated; (l) proceed to the adoption of the directive on criminal measures aimed at the enforcement of intellectual property rights, following an assessment, in the light of contemporary innovation research, of the extent to which it is necessary and proportionate, and while simultaneously prohibiting, in pursuit of that purpose, the systematic monitoring and surveillance of all users’ activities on the Internet, and ensuring that the penalties are proportionate to the infringements committed; within this context, also respect the freedom of expression and association of individual users and combat the incentives for cyber-violations of intellectual property rights, including certain excessive access restrictions placed by intellectual property holders themselves; (m) ensure that the expression of controversial political beliefs through the Internet is not subject to criminal prosecution; (n) ensure that there are no laws or practices restricting or criminalising the right of journalists and the media to gather and distribute information for reporting purposes; Constant attention to the absolute protection and enhanced promotion of fundamental freedoms on the Internet (o) consider that ‘digital identity’ is increasingly becoming an integral part of our ‘self’ and in this respect deserves to be protected adequately and effectively from intrusions by both private and public actors – thus, the particular set of data that is organically linked to the ‘digital identity’ of an individual should be defined and protected, and all its elements should be considered inalienable personal, non-economic and non-tradable rights; take due account of the importance of anonymity, pseudonymity and control of information flows for privacy and the fact that users should be provided with, and educated about, the means to protect it efficiently, for instance through various available Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs); (p) ensure that Member States that intercept and monitor data traffic, regardless of whether that applies to their own citizens or to data traffic from abroad, do so under the strict conditions and safeguards provided for by law; call on Member States to ensure that remote searches, if provided for by national law, are conducted on the basis of a valid search warrant issued by the competent judicial authorities; note that simplified procedures for conducting remote searches in comparison with direct searches are unacceptable, as they infringe the rule of law and the right to privacy; (q) recognise the danger of certain forms of Internet surveillance and control aimed also at tracking every ‘digital’ step of an individual, with the aim of providing a profile of the user and of assigning ‘scores’; make clear the fact that such techniques should always be assessed in terms of their necessity and their proportionality in the light of the objectives they aim to achieve; emphasise also the need for an enhanced awareness and informed consent of users with respect to their e-activities involving the sharing of personal data (for instance in the case of social networks); (r) urge the Member States to identify all entities which use Net Surveillance and to draw up publicly accessible annual reports on Net Surveillance ensuring legality, proportionality and transparency; (s) examine and prescribe limits to the ‘consent’ that can be requested of and extracted from users, whether by governments or by private companies, to relinquish part of their privacy, as there is a clear imbalance of negotiating power and of knowledge between individual users and such institutions; (t) strictly limit, define and regulate the cases in which a private Internet company may be required to disclose data to government authorities, and further ensure that the use of that data by governments is subject to the strictest data protection standards; establish effective control and evaluation of that process; (u) stress the importance of Internet users being able to enhance their right to obtain the permanent deletion of their personal data located on Internet websites or on any third party data storage medium; ensure that such a decision by users is respected by Internet service providers, e-commerce providers and information society services; ensure that Member States provide for the effective enforcement of citizens’ right of access to their personal data, including, as appropriate, the erasure of such data or its removal from web sites; (v) condemn government-imposed censorship of the content that may be searched on Internet sites, especially when such restrictions can have a ‘chilling effect’ on political speech; (w) call on the Member States to ensure that freedom of expression is not subject to arbitrary restrictions from the public and/or private sphere and to avoid all legislative or administrative measures that could have a ‘chilling effect’ on all aspects of freedom of speech; (x) recall that transfer of personal data to third countries must take place in accordance with the provisions laid down in, inter alia, Directive 95/46/EC and in Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA; (y) draw attention to the fact that the development of the ‘Internet of things’ and the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems should not sidestep the protection of data and of citizens’ rights; (z) call on the Member States to apply Directive 95/46/EC on personal data in relation to the Internet correctly; remind the Member States that this Directive, especially Article 8, applies regardless of the technology used for the processing of personal data and that its provisions call for Member States to provide the right to a judicial remedy and compensation for their infringement (Articles 22, 23, and 24); (aa) encourage the incorporation of fundamental principles of the ‘Internet Bill of Rights’ into the research and development process of Internet-related instruments and applications and the promotion of the ‘privacy by design’ principle according to which privacy and data protection requirements should be introduced as soon as possible in the life cycle of new technological developments, assuring citizens a user-friendly environment; (ab) support and request the active involvement of the European Data Protection Supervisor and of the Article 29 Working Party in the development of European legislation dealing with Internet activities with a potential impact on data protection; International undertakings (ac) exhort all Internet players to engage in the on-going process of the ‘Internet Bill of Rights,’ which builds on existing fundamental rights, promotes their enforcement, and fosters the recognition of emerging principles; in this respect the dynamic coalition on the Internet Bill of Rights has a leading role to play; (ad) ensure that, in this context, a multi-stakeholder, multi-level, process-oriented initiative and a mix between global and local initiatives are considered in order to specify and protect the rights of Internet users and thereby ensure the legitimacy, accountability and acceptance of the process; (ae) recognise that the global and open nature of the Internet requires global standards for data protection, security and freedom of speech; in this context call on Member States and the Commission to take the initiative for the drawing up of such standards; welcome the resolution on the urgent need for protecting privacy in a borderless world, and for reaching a Joint Proposal for setting International Standards on Privacy and Personal Data Protection of the 30th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners held in Strasbourg, on 15–17 October 2008; urge all EU stakeholders (public as well as private) to engage in this reflection; (af) stress the importance of developing a real Web E-agora where Union citizens can have a more interactive discussion with policy makers and other institutional stakeholders; (ag) encourage the active participation of the EU in different international fora dealing with global and localised aspects of the Internet, such as the Internet Governance Forum (IGF); (ah) take part together with all the relevant EU actors in the establishment of a European IGF that would take stock of the experience gained by national IGFs, function as a regional pole, and relay more efficiently Europe-wide issues, positions and concerns in the upcoming international IGFs;