The Commission will ensure the respect of Internet neutrality...

(Source: Senator Trégouet's Newsletter RTFlash)

MEPs adopted on Thursday, November 17, 2011, a resolution calling on the Commission to ensure compliance with net neutrality by the ISPs. For Parliament, this neutrality is defined in particular by the absence of discrimination, access to any content, application or service in favour of all users, equal traffic treatment regardless of the content, source or destination.

This resolution considers that risks are "significant" and could raise the violation of the principles of net neutrality - such as anti-competitive behavior, blocking innovation, restrictions on freedom of expression and media pluralism, lack of awareness consumers and privacy violation. "In past April, the European Commission, in a communication, found that the existing rules at EU level are sufficient to ensure net neutrality. It wrote, including the need for traffic management, to avoid the "network congestion."

In its resolution, the European Parliament stressed the risk of "anti-competitive and discriminatory behavior in traffic management." However, the resolution recognizes "the need for a reasonable traffic management to ensure that the end user's connectivity is not interrupted." Officials want the Commission to consider whether further regulatory measures are needed or not, and it monitors the traffic management practices, in cooperation with the Berec (body of European regulators electronic communications) and the Member States.