Kroes Details EU No-Disconnect, Open Data Strategies

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes today presented details on the No-Disconnect strategy of the EU which aims to support human rights activists and freedom fighters in authoritarian regimes.

Kroes listed the provision of easy-to-use software and hardware kits to allow circumvention of censorship and blocked networks, education, and a push for private companies to stop selling information and communications technologies (ICT) tools for repression to non-democratic regimes.

What made headlines in some EU member states was that Kroes presented former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg as a high-level, non-paid advisor to the No-Disconnect Strategy. As there is a strong need for cooperation with the many existing initiatives in the United States, as well as in some EU member states like Sweden and the Netherlands – the latter of which just announced a €6 million euro programme to support freedom online – she needed somebody with a lot of time and foreign policy experience, Kroes said.

Minister zu Guttenberg stepped down from all of his offices in summer because he had been found to have copied-and-pasted a large part of his dissertation. He will be based in the US and will liaise with the US government and non-governmental organisations, and announced that he is not in for a political comeback, but would try to convince doubters by what he will deliver for No-Disconnect.

German Green EP member Jan Philipp Albrecht reacted to the appointment with sharp criticism, pointing to zu Guttenberg’s past support for an abandoned internet blocking system in Germany.

Kroes today also announced the EU Open Data strategy, which will bring a push to member states to allow reuse of public data by private companies and organisations by changes to the already existing relevant Directive from 2003.

According to Kroes, the opening up of public data resources could bring several ten thousand new jobs. Statistics and data available in the Union are a gold mine, she said in a press conference, so “let’s start to mine it.” The European Commission will proceed with presenting their facts and data in an transparent and easily accessible manner, the commissioner said.

Link to the Commission’s release about the “No Disconnect” Initiative here.

European Commission memo on the Open Data Strategy here.