The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, convening in Barcelona, Catalonia on 19th and 20th November 2009:

Having regard to:

-         The on-going discussion at the European Parliament on Electronic communications, the so-called "Telecom Package", which should result in the adoption of a new legislation by the end of the year;

-         Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on freedom of expression and information, which states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers”;

-         Article 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on the Right to good administration, to Article 42 on Access to Documents and to the activities and documents produced by the European Ombudsman on the issue of access to public acts.

Whereas:

-         The debate on internet rights has become a pan-European issue and a matter of political confrontation;

-         The fundamental charters of almost every democratic country state that freedom and secrecy of correspondence and of other forms of communication is inviolable.

Considers:

-         That access to the internet should be safeguarded as a fundamental right like those concerning communication and freedom of expression.

Invites all ELDR member parties to campaign to ensure that:

-         No technology that would facilitate surveillance of internet users, such as technologies that mirror or monitor users' actions, and/or interfere with operations of users' network activity for the benefit of a third party, also known as "filtering", should be made mandatory by competent authorities;

-         No restriction may be imposed on the rights and freedoms of end-users, without a prior ruling by the national judicial authorities.

Urges all ELDR member parties to foster national and transnational efforts to promote:

-         An open debate on the possibility to legalise file-sharing of copyright-covered works through the adoption of extended collective licenses;

-         The adoption of open formats and free software as good practice to guarantee the independence of institutions, transparency and accessibility of all citizens to public acts, thus resulting also in significant budget savings for public administrations.