I'm not a student of EU governmental process. However, I see value generally in a technical review of and pushback on technically vague and possibly untenable legislation. Whatever stage the draft is at, exposing the potential implications, and allowing open public debate seems positive. 

I'd love to see sane advocates push for specific answers to questions raised in such a document, and gather support for broader accountability and discourse. 






On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 1:23 PM, Gordon Lennox <gordon.lennox.13@gmail.com> wrote:
A sort of recap:

The proposal from the Commission did not come out of the blue. There were discussions of various kinds and we can be pretty sure that members of RIPE were involved.* Whether there was joined-up-thinking within those organisations is maybe out of scope here.

The proposal was then adopted by the Commission and forwarded to the other institutions quite some time ago - September last year. Then it became public.

Discussions in Council tend not to be that visible - they are between governments. People can always however contact their own favourite government minister.

Discussions in the Parliament have been more visible. Individual MEPs have looked at the proposal. There have been meetings. Lobbyists have lobbied.** Commentators have commented. And Committees have met. And again we can be pretty sure that members of RIPE were involved.

The Committees which wanted to vote have now voted and we are now about two weeks from a probable plenary vote.

So it is too late to do anything? Maybe. But as has been pointed out everybody is looking forward to the elections.

Would it be useful if this bit of the RIPE community wrote? I am not sure. Agreeing a text and sending it "on behalf of" within a week? Not easy. Then again others who wish the proposal to go through would find it very easy to shoot such a thing down. They have their technical experts too.

Maybe it would be better if everybody here - and their friends! - wrote individually to as many MEPs as they thought useful.

But what would folk be asking for?

Asking for clarification? No. Nobody has time for that now.

Throw out the whole proposal? Including the bit on roaming and just before the summer holidays?

Throw out the NN bit - which articles? A bit drastic. But based on the fact that it is just not clear?

Modify the NN bit - the bit they have already discussed and discussed? And what would we propose, jointly or individually?

Push it all back to the new parliament? Including the bit on roaming and just before the summer holidays?

Push back the NN bit?

Or...?

Gordon

* Is any member of ETNO or ECTA not also a member or RIPE?

** I would guess for example Google had  a say.






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Meredith Whittaker
Program Manager, Google Research
Google NYC