Parliament and Commission agree on "Internet Charter"
The Italian MEP Franco Malerba, representing the Economics Committee, expressed strong support for the Commission's proposal to strenghten international coordination in order to meet the challenges of globalisation and the Information Society. In a Parliamentary session on the 13 January 1999, MEP Malerba expressed personal approval of the idea of establishing an "Internet Charter" - a legally non-binding document setting out internationally agreed objectives and principles in areas such as taxation, liability, jurisdiction and data-protection. From the European point of view, he considered the main purposes of this Charter should be to ensure that European companies and organisations can fully participate in the opportunities offered by Internet and electronic commerce, to avoid premature and conflicting regulation and to ensure that the interest of consumers are safeguarded. Introducing the Charter, MEP Malerba stressed the need for close cooperation with industry and with other countries, in particular the USA. Commissioner Martin Bangemann was pleased that the European Parliament and the Commission took the same view. The proposals were only one part of the information society. He disagreed with the EP's Committee on Culture, which had expressed its concern that the "smaller" languages and the SMEs would be threatened by current developments. The contrary would be the case, as the Internet provided an enormous opportunity for smaller languages to introduce themselves.