Overview

On 5th November 2009 the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers finally agreed on a package of EU Telecoms Reforms involving five directives and referred to as the "Telecoms Package." The Telecoms Package will apply to communication providers, such as telecoms and Internet service providers (ISPs), but not to companies who merely access the Internet to provide services to users.

The provisions of the Telecoms Package were endorsed by an overwhelming majority of the European Parliament in May this year. However, one provision had remained controversial between Parliament and the Council of Ministers, and that was the degree to which access to the Internet should, and could, be protected by EU law, as well as the procedural and judicial safeguards for Internet users.

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