EU-US data protection agreement

Common approach instead of national solo efforts

Ministers of justice from the European Union and the United States met yesterday in Washington to discuss data protection and mass surveillance. Jan Philipp Albrecht, Greens/EFA spokesperson on justice and home affairs, comments:  "EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding has achieved impor...

EU summit

European values ignored

At today's EU summit in Brussels, the leaders have not made any clear policy decisions on data protection or refugee issues. Rebecca Harms, Co-President of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, said: "The heads of state and government apparently do not want to be on an equal footi...

EU-Thailand Free-Trade Agreement

Thousands protest on the streets of Thailand

  The 2nd round of the Thailand - EU Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) talks took place last week in the city of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. Since the start of the negotiations, civil society has expressed its fear that the EU, as it did in the recent past with India, is pushing levels of &quo...

Music copyright

EP tightens up accountability and transparency within collecting societies

The European Parliament's legal affairs committee today unanimously adopted a report on collective management of copyright. This draft legislation, part of the Digital Agenda for Europe and the Europe 2020 Strategy, aims to tighten up transparency and accountability within collecting societies and f...

NSA surveillance

European Parliament votes to investigate the NSA spying scandal

The European Parliament today voted by a large majority to adopt a resolution on the USA's NSA and other EU Member States' surveillance programs. This resolution calls for an inquiry by the European Parliament's civil liberties committee. The Greens/EFA group regrets however that there was no majori...

Surveillance and espionage

The EP must stand up for strong data protection

Commenting on the Prism and Tempora surveillance programs and the spying attacks by the US National Security Agency (NSA), Jan Philipp Albrecht, European Parliament rapporteur/draftsperson for the new EU data protection regulation and the EU-US Framework Agreement on data protection, stated: &quo...

Treaty for the blind and visually impaired

Big success in Marrakesh

Over the last two weeks, World Intellectual Property Organization delegates have been meeting at a diplomatic conference to conclude a treaty to facilitate access to published works by visually impaired people. After years of discussion, an agreement has finally been reached. Commenting on the ag...

US 'PRISM' surveillance scandal

Third countries and IT/social media companies must comply with European data protection laws

Commenting on the exchange of views today in the European Parliament's civil liberties committee with Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, Jan Philipp Albrecht, European Parliament rapporteur/draftsperson for the new EU data protection regulation, stated:"People don't want the police and secret...

Strasbourg Flash

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 10-14 June 2013

Greens/EFA priorities for the Strasbourg Plenary include asylum seekers, customs enforcement of IP, EU's housing crisis, rules on infant and baby food, border-free Europe, accounting transparency for extractive industries, illegal fishing, EU budget and the future framework, EU economic governance and the social impact, problematic EU passenger data rules, Turkey's worrying democratic backslide, nuclear safety and EU rules

Collective Rights Management

16.05.2013

How to make it work

While the importance of collective right management as a principle is obvious, in recent years, many concerns and criticisms have been raised by both rights holders and users on the functioning of collective management societies. This conference will take place in the midst of the process of designing a new directive on collective rights management.

Brussels Agenda

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 13 - 17 May 2013

Greens/EFA priorities for the week include Tax evasion and banking transparency, EU-Ukraine agreement and ongoing concerns, Reindustrialising Europe the right way, Collective rights management: how to make it work, & Biodiversity: a European instrument for access and benefit sharing

Facebook terms and conditions unfair and not valid in Europe

Press release from Mark Demesmaeker MEP

A reply from the European Commission to a question submitted by an N-VA Member of the European Parliament shows that a lot of terms and conditions Facebook imposes on its European users are not valid in the European Union. MEP Mark Demesmaeker said: "Even more so, some of the conditions are ou...