Can Parliament stop Council “steamrolling” on telecoms?

Campaigners for digital rights continue to express fears that the European Council is preparing to “remove the right to due process” as the EU institutions prepare once again to work out a way forward on the much-delayed telecoms package.

The European Parliament this week finalised its 27-member negotiating team after some delay following indecision by the two largest political groups (the centre-right EPP and the Socialists) over who best to represent them.

However, digital rights groups have expressed serious doubts over the content of the talks, and the make-up of the committee.

The Council is insisting that only amendment 138, which deals with the thorny issue of digital exclusion, will be discussed at next week's meeting. The Commission is said to be backing the Council's stance, leaving the Parliament with an uphill battle to impose its watchdog role on proceedings.

One concern expressed by digital rights campaigners is that UK MEP Malcolm Harbour, previously of the EPP and who helped negotiate the rejected second-reading compromise much favoured by the Commission, has returned to negotiating table the under the umbrella of the new ECR group.

Parliament sources have pointed to Harbour's long-standing pro-industry stance, and apparent willingness to adhere to Commission pressure as evidence of a weakened Parliament team.

Harbour's ECR colleague on the conciliation committee is fellow UK member Giles Chichester.

According to one source close to the negotiations, the Council is “still angry” at the Parliament for stalling the package at second reading, leaving some bitterness between the two: “so far, the only compromise is that the Council has agreed to accept an apology from the Parliament (for not accepting the second reading compromise), and that it should go along with the new compromise.”

“The Council seem determined to re-write 138, or make it meaningless. The question is, will the Parliament accept this kind of steamrolling? If it does, this 7th legislature will be a joke. The Council has no basis for taking the moral high ground”.