The ECR Group have successfully forced a vote in the European Parliament’s plenary chamber on controversial new eprivacy rules. Last week the parliament’s civil liberties committee voted to negotiate directly with the Council on the new rules that will make sweeping changes to the way the internet works and many free services that consumers currently use on a daily basis

The ECR Group have successfully forced a vote in the European Parliament’s plenary chamber on controversial new eprivacy rules. Last week the parliament’s civil liberties committee voted to negotiate directly with the Council on the new rules that will make sweeping changes to the way the internet works and many free services that consumers currently use on a daily basis.

Dan Dalton MEP, ECR Group spokesman on the internal market, submitted the request for a vote which was supported by MEPs from a number of political groups.

Speaking after the request was made he said:

“These kind of sweeping changes to the way the internet works should be put before the whole parliament – not immediately negotiated by a select group of MEPs whose positions rarely represent the majority view of the house. Privacy is a priority but the committee’s position gets the balance all wrong.

“Consumers regularly use free online services and apps and freely give their data. So long as their privacy and data is protected, which it is under both existing rules and the upcoming data protection laws, we should not remove the incentive for businesses to produce free content.”

Notes:

Having met the required threshold, the vote will now be held on Thursday 26th October and requires a simple majority to place the file on the agenda of a subsequent plenary session and be opened for amendments.