EU: Security in electronic commerce

On 19 May the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, chaired by Willy De Clercq (ELDR, B), adopted a report by Wolfgang Ullmann (Greens, D), on a Commission paper on security and trust in electronic telecommunication. The report calls on the Commission and MS to press ahead with dialogue and agreements at international level to create a worldwide virtual economic area through common technical standards and mutual recognition. It stresses the importance of international dialogue between the European Union and various international organisations such as the OECD, UN, ITU, ICC and WTO, to avoid regulations forming a barrier to trade. The Committee also underlined the need for reciprocity in trade relations, and argued that the development of a market in data encryption could, despite controversy concerning illicit uses of this technique, be of considerable value to the development of electronic commerce as well as guaranteeing the fundamental right to privacy and confidentiality in communications.