EU: Safe use of the Internet

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee has adopted (unopposed) the report by Gerhard Schmid (PES, D) on a plan to promote safe use of the Internet. It aims to encourage an environment favourable to the development of the Internet industry while promoting safer use of the Internet, and to complement other EU-funded measures dealing with the impact of the new technologies on the public. The committee believes that illegal and harmful content on the Internet, while limited, can be damaging to the mental health, safety and economic interests of consumers and thus affect the creation of an environment conducive to sound ethical standards. It shares the view of the Council’s Legal Service, which maintains that the legal basis of the proposal should be changed, so as to use Article 129a of the Treaty, which provides for the co-decision procedure, rather than Article 130.