European Commission Says It Deepens Commitment To Net Neutrality

With new European Union rules on telecommunications set to take effect next month, the European Commission today adopted a report which it said further commits it to principles of openness and neutrality on the internet.

[Update: La Quadrature du Net, a French digital rights organisation, has issued a statement criticizing the Commission report as failing to sufficiently protect a free and open internet. Read the statement here.]

“The Commission will be vigilant that new EU telecoms rules on transparency, quality of service and the ability to switch operator, due to enter into force on 25th May 2011, are applied in a way that ensures that these open and neutral internet principles are respected in practice,” the Commission said in a statement, available here.

The Commission asked the EU regulators group to undertake a “rigorous” fact-finding study of threats to an open and neutral internet, including “barriers to changing operators, blocking or throttling internet traffic (e.g. voice over internet services), transparency and quality of service.” The Commission said it will publish evidence from the investigation by year’s end, and will assess the need for stronger measures if problems are found.