EU telecoms ministers meeting on 9 December look set to adopt a new programme to protect children against illegal internet content, especially child pornography and violent or racist material. Ministers are also set to back new short-term action against junk commercial e-mails (spam).
By giving their green light to the report by Ms. Mastenbroek (PSE, Netherlands) adopted by an overwhelming majority in Parliament last week, ministers are expected to renew existing EU action to fight harmful content over the internet (Safer Internet Plus programme).
With a 45 million euro budget from 2005 to 2008, the draft programme will fund projects to protect children against harmful content, including the extension of an existing network of national hotlines to cover more European countries. New member states and candidate countries are especially targeted since no hotlines currently exist in these countries.
The development of filtering technologies is also to be encouraged under the programme but with due respect to EU privacy rules, according to the draft text. The Commission will report by mid-2006 on the implementation of the programme.
EU ministers are also set to back renewed action against unsolicited direct marketing e-mails ('spam') proposed by the Dutch Presidency. EU diplomats gave their approval to a Presidency policy paper on which ministers are expected to conclude without debate.
The paper focuses on short-term action against spam, including improving enforcement co-operation and establishing an informal information exchange network of national spam authorities. The proposed Council conclusions propose to evaluate whether differences in national privacy laws might constitute an obstacle to effective cross-border enforcement.
