Activities of Marietje SCHAAKE related to 2012/2094(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
A digital freedom strategy in EU foreign policy (short presentation)
Reports (1)
REPORT on a Digital Freedom Strategy in EU Foreign Policy PDF (232 KB) DOC (171 KB)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on a Digital Freedom Strategy in EU Foreign Policy
Amendments (35)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recognises that the Internet has become a public space which has given rise to new methodavenues of cross-border trade and innovative market development, as well as social and cultural interaction; believes digital freedoms and free trade should go hand in hand to create and optimize business opportunities for European companies in the global digital economy;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Considers the Internet as a global market place for which the free flow of information and access to communication and information technologies are indispensable prerequisites. Calls for the inclusion of conditionality clauses in EU free trade agreements stipulating objective and transparent safeguards preserving unrestricted access to the open Internet and ensuring the free flow of information;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas these changes create new contexts which require adapted application of existing laws based on a strategy to mainstream internet and ICTs in all EU external action;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recognises that unrestricted and uncensored access to the internet, mobile phones and ICTs have impacted on human rights and fundamental freedoms, exerting an enabling effect, by expanding the scope of freedom of expression, access to information, the right to privacy and freedom of assembly across the world;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Recognizes that the internet and the social media enable governments to engage in direct diplomacy and the facilitation of increased people-to-people contact around the world, stresses that open debates about ideas can refute extremism and improve intercultural engagement and understanding;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Considers culture as a facilitator of access and contact where political relations are blocked or troubled, recognizes that freedom and culture are very much intertwined and that digital cultural diplomacy is of strategic interest to the EU;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses that the promotion and protection of digital freedoms should be mainstreamed and annually reviewed so as to ensure accountability and continuity, in all the EU's external actions, financing and aid policies and instruments; under the leadership of the High Representative and the EEAS;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Considers concerns relating to the protection and promotion of human rights and freedoms online present in all countries; whilst recognizing the critical distinctions in the context within which ICTs are used such as the existence of the rule of law and the right to redress;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Commission and the Council not to conclude trade agreements with countries where EU ICT companies are required to restrict access to websites,EU to provide political backing to European companies faced in third countries with request to remove user-generated content or provide personal information in ways that breach fundamental rights and curtail the freedom to conduct business; calls on the EU to minimise the extra-territorial application of third-country legislation on EU citizens online;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Notes that eCommerce has developed outside of traditional and standard trade- regulatory frameworks. Stresses the importance of increased international cooperation in the WTO and WIPO to protect and ensure the development of the global digital market. Calls for a revision and update of the current Information Technology Agreement (ITA) in the WTO and for the EU to explore the possibilities of an International Digital Economy Agreement (IDEA);
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Considers restricted access for EU businesses to digital markets and online consumers through mass state censorship or restricted market-access for European online service providers in third countries protectionist measures and trade barriers, potentially to be addressed in international dispute settlement mechanisms; Calls on the Commission to present a strategy to challenge measures by third countries restricting access for EU companies to global online markets;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Stresses that EU development and aid programmes should include digital freedoms, above all in societies going through post-conflict or political transitions; believes that EU regulatory experts are essential interlocutors for purposes of training counterparts and embedding basic rights and principles in new (media) regulation and legislation; stresses that aid in the form of building ICT infrastructures should be made conditional on the implementation and preservation of uncensored access to the internet and information online; as well as on digital freedom more broadly;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Notes that increased governmental involvement and regulation of the Internet hampers its open and unrestricted nature, thereby restricting the potential for increased eCommerce and EU businesses in the digital economy; believes a multi-stakeholder approach offers the best approach in ensuring a balance between public and private interest on the Internet and the global market place; calls for an international effort to build required infrastructures to enable the expansion of the digital economy, including liberal regulatory regimes, also to developing countries to increase mutual benefits in line with the trade for change principle;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4d. Considers new technologies as enablers of change and beneficial to fundamental freedoms, human rights and business opportunities; acknowledges that EU made technologies and services are used in third countries to purposely violate human rights by censoring information, tracking citizens and for building parallel intranets;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Deplores the use of EU-made technologies and services in third countries to violate human rights through censorship of information, mass surveillance, monitoring, and the tracing and tracking of citizens and their activities on (mobile) telephone networks and the internet; urges the Commission to take all necessary steps to stop this digital arms trade;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Welcomes the ban on the export of repressionve technologies and services to Syria and Iran; believes this ban should become a precedent for structural restrictive measures, such as ex-ante licensing requirements, an EU-wide ‘catch-all’ provision or ‘country-specific lists’ in the dual-use regulatory framework;
Amendment 55 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Underlines the need for more stringent supply-chain controls and corporate responsibility schemes in respect of trading in products – from equipment to mobile devices – and services, which can be used to curtail human rights and digital freedom; regards jamming and interception technology products and services as ‘'single use’' items whose export should be subject to ex-ante approval. Urges the Commission to present a new draft Regulatory framework on dual use exports, addressing the export of potentially harmful export of ICTs to third countries and which foresees a coordinating and monitoring role for the Commission;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Underlines the need for more stringent supply-chain controls, such as the 'know your end-user principle' and corporate responsibility schemes in respect of trading in products (from equipment to mobile devices) and services which can be used to curtail human rights and digital freedom;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Believes companies should design and implement businesses practices monitoring the possible impact of new ICT products on human rights, also in the R&D phase, and to ensure non-complicity in possible human rights violations in third countries. Calls on the Commission to provide EU businesses with a wide range of information to ensure the right balance between business interests and corporate social responsibility;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Believes copyright reform in the EU is essential for completing both the EU's digital single market, as well for optimizing the opportunities for EU businesses and content providers in the global digital economy, calls on the Commission to further it's IPR strategy whilst taking into full account a need for a balanced copyright reform which suits the 21st century digital communications networks and is primarily based on fundamental rights protection online, proportional protection of rightsholders and preserving the open nature of the internet and it's innovation potential, and which should become the new basis for IPR provisions and commitments in future FTAs;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Stresses the need to implement and monitor EU sanctions on technologies at Union level so as to ensure that Member States comply equally and the level playing field is preserved;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Stresses that the Commission should be able to provide companies, in doubt whether to file for an export license, with real time information about the legality or potentially harmful effects of trade deals, as well as EU (based) companies that enter into contractual relations with third country governments, whether to win operating licenses, negotiate standstill clauses or by accepting public involvement in business operations or public use of networks and services;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Urges the Commission to submit, during the course of 2013, at the latest, proposals that require increased transparency and accountability for EU- based companies and the disclosure of human rights impact assessment policies; in order to improve the monitoring of the export of ICTs, products and services aimed at blocking websites, mass surveillance, tracking and monitoring of individuals, breaking into private (email) conversations and the filtering of search results.
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Calls upon the Commission and the Council to ensure that mandates for multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations, as well as the conduct of the negotiations themselves, are effectively conducive to the achievement of important objectives of the European Union, in particular the achievement of a true digital single market.
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 b (new)
Paragraph 21 b (new)
21b. Calls on the EU to provide political backing to European companies when faced with requests to remove user generated content or provide personal information in ways that breach fundamental rights and curtail the freedom to conduct business;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Notes that eCommerce has developed outside of traditional trade-regulatory frameworks; stresses the importance of increased international cooperation in the WTO and WIPO to protect and ensure the development of the global digital market; calls for a revision and update of the current Information Technology Agreement (ITA) in the WTO and for the EU to explore the possibilities of an International Digital Economy Agreement (IDEA);
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Considers restricted access for EU businesses and online consumers to (digital) markets through mass censorship in third countries to constitute protectionist measures and trade barriers; calls on the Commission to present a strategy to challenge measures by third countries restricting access for EU businesses to their online markets;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29 a (new)
Paragraph 29 a (new)
29a. Calls on the EU to address and resist the extra-territorial impact of third country laws, notably IPR laws of the United States, on EU citizens, consumers and businesses, in this context calls on the Commission to swiftly present its EU-wide Cloud Computing Strategy as highlighted in the Digital Agenda for Europe:
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 a (new)
Paragraph 30 a (new)
30a. Regrets the push in the EU for more powers to block websites, which should always be a measure of last resort;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 b (new)
Paragraph 30 b (new)
30b. Strongly supports the principle of net neutrality, namely that internet service providers do not block, discriminate against, impair or degrade the ability of any person to use a service to access, use, send, post, receive or offer any content, application or service of their choice, irrespective of source or target;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Calls on the Commission to propose a new regulatory framework for e- commerce, as well as an update of the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED), which would balance the need for relevant copyright reform and protection with the need to protect fundamental rights online and preserve the open internet and would serve as a basis for IPR provisions and commitments in future FTAs;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40 a (new)
Paragraph 40 a (new)
40a. Considers coordination and joint diplomatic initiatives with other OECD countries in developing and executing a digital freedom strategy essential for efficient and agile action;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40 b (new)
Paragraph 40 b (new)
40b. Calls on the Commission and the Council to adopt a Digital Freedom Strategy in EU Foreign Policy as soon as possible;