The European Commission is close to unveiling a plan to promote global cooperation on the legal and technical challenges of the Internet.

The initiative is the brainchild of German Commissioner Martin Bangemann, who first called for an "international charter for global communications" in a speech last September in Geneva.

With information increasingly circulating across borders, he argues, a new framework is needed to help governments and industry coordinate their approach to issues such as technical standards, data privacy and illegal material.

The Commission is expected to adopt a policy paper shortly, for discussion by EU telecommunications ministers on February 26, officials said.

Firms fear over-regulation

Companies which stand to profit from the growth in electronic commerce say they welcome the effort to promote co-operation, but worry that the proposal could lead to unwelcome government intervention.

"It's quite clear that, if we are looking at telecommunications, let alone the Internet, we have to look at global developments," Adrian Whitchurch, European regulatory manager for BT said.

"Having said that, we don't know yet what the charter would really be about," he said. "We would certainly be wary about any proposals aimed at adding an extra layer of global regulation over everything else."

BT is a member of the Global Internet Project (GIP) which involves about a dozen European, US and Japanese software and telecommunications companies.

Several of its US members, which include IBM and Netscape, are urging the Commission to propose an international conference with strong industry involvement, industry sources said.

They proposed specific language stating that traditional, regulation had "only a limited role to play in the context of the information society's global, borderless and non-hierarchical nature."

A Commission official said the executive was sympathetic to the argument for an industry-led, market-driven approach.

"We're not trying to regulate or tell anybody what to do," he said.

The Commission simply wanted to find the best way to address issues arising in the new electronic economy, he said.

Various international bodies are already dealing with global communications issues, including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Trade Organisation, the World Intellectual Property Organisation and the International Telecommunications Union.

Mr Bangemann said there was a danger that different countries would sign up to different rules.

He proposed an international charter based on self-regulation, mutual recognition of licenses and a minimum number of rules.

US government open to initiative

The US government, which has been at odds with the EU on issues such as data protection and encryption policy, has said it is open to the initiative depending on how it is defined.

President Clinton's Internet policy adviser, Ira Magaziner, said last October that Washington was interested in "international understandings", but not in any new formal regulatory or inter-governmental body.
 

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage	©