... the deal would lock Europe into a single connective technology and has fewer benefits for the industry that will have to execute the strategy - the house builders.

Wall Street Journal blogger Anna Leach reports that the proposals draw on good practice from all over Europe, though the only country with mandatory broadband in new builds is Spain.

The new regulations will initially be submitted to the European Parliament, then to the twenty-seven individual member states — a process that normally takes around two years.

Telcos are predictably enthusiatic about the proposals. Says Tom Ruhan, chairman of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association: “The proposals to reduce the costs of deployment of fibre networks are very welcome.”

While a Vodafone spokesman said: “We welcome the Commission’s proposals which are pragmatic and urgently needed.”

The benefit to telcos is estimated by the EC to be €40-60 billion – the amount the Commission expects them to save as the new regulation reduces their civil engineering costs by 30%.

As a secondary benefit, European telcos will also efforlessly acquire hundreds of thousands of new customers.

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... unite the USA, the world's largest economy, with four other 'top ten' nations: Germany, the UK, France and Italy.

It would also help defuse the long running rift between the US and EU over the free flow of information across borders.

This is an increasingly important priority for US multinational mammoths like Google, Facebook and Amazon but could be hard for EU members France and Germany to accept because of privacy concerns.

The USA and European Union already enjoy the largest economic relationship in the world - albeit (according to Reuters) "one of the most complicated".

Acknowledging that negotiations will be tough, Representative Dave Camp, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, welcomed President Obama's initiative. "A strong, comprehensive trade and investment agreement with the EU has the potential to create significant good-paying jobs for Americans," said Camp.

Mr Camp and the Senate Finance Committee leaders also said they planned to push this year for renewal of "trade promotion authority," a law that expired in 2007 that allowed the White House to submit trade deals to Congress for a straight yes-or-no vote without any amendments.

Such legislation has long been considered essential in persuading other countries to put their best offers on the table in trade talks with the United States.

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... EU citizens' data stored on US servers is not protected from access by a third party.

According to a report commissioned by the EU and carried out by the Centre for European Policy Studies, America's so-called Patriot Act gives US authorities the legal right to access foreign citizens' data stored within US borders.

Commenting on the report, European Parliament member Jan Philipp Albrecht insists that "this study is absolutely not about generating panic." 

According to Mr Albrecht, most users don't even know where their data is stored. 

"It's a simple fact that the US data protection law only applies to US citizens." "But there are special laws that target the surveillance of non-US citizens", he added.

"This happens when sensitive data from big companies, like Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook, are made available to US authorities for investigations." 

Thilo Weichert, data protection commissioner for the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein is also concerned at the power wielded by the US over EU citizens' data.

Mr Weichert has been following the implications of this development closely for more than two years, while pushing Facebook to allow its users to remain anonymous.

"The long arm of US law stretches as far as Europe," he said.

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... just 0.4% growth. Italy will contract by 0.5% and Spain will retrench by 1.4%

In all cases the predictions are that output will be weaker than expected by the respective national governments, leading to the zone's budget deficit reduction targets being missed.  

Says  economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn: "Europe is going through a difficult process of macro-economic rebalancing, which will still last for some time.

"Europe must continue to combine sound fiscal policies with structural reforms to create the conditions for sustainable growth to bring unemployment down from the current unacceptably high levels."

EC officials blame the deepening sovereign debt crisis and financial market concerns about a possible breakup of the Eurozone for its "disappointing" growth performance in 2012.

The Commission expects that domestic demand will make no contribution to Eurozone GDP in 2013, as the lack of jobs and tax increases hit consumer spending.

However, it expressed confidence that by 2014 the benefits of the austerity programmes would bear fruit, leading to expansion of 1.4%.

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... such a law "would threaten its very existence".

However, Culture Minister Filippetti is unmoved by the Mountain View mammoth's plea. She told a parliamentary commission that a 'pay for news search tax' is "a tool that it seems important to me to develop".

Google France, ever mindful of the general good, pleads that the plan "would be harmful to the internet, internet users and news websites that benefit from the  substantial traffic" garnered by newspapers via Google's search engine.

Google claims it redirects four billion clicks to French media pages each month.

While Google would comfortably survive any such move by the French government, it would not be unscathed.

The real threat to the search engine's global dominance and profitability lies in the adoption of similar legislation across Europe and other world regions.

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... "worldwide solutions. It will not be very useful to get European-wide solutions,"  he told a news conference yesterday [25-Jul-12]. 

The Commission typically looks for concessions that would benefit European consumers, but has on occasions asked for remedies with a broader scope.

The Google probe is a critical case for Mr Almunia, and his demand for globally applicable solutions - which might see an EU decision serving as a template for worldwide regulators.

The current hearing is another example of Almunia's attempt to stamp his mark on EU competition policy.

He believes that Google's search results may unfairly favour its own search services over those of its rivals', while concern has also been expressed that the Cupertino colossus may have copied without permission material from other websites - for example travel and restaurant reviews.

Read the original unabridged article here.

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... extensive, boosting emphasis on safety and technology factors in the marketing of new auto models.

Calls to the new service could be triggered by on-board sensors such as those in the airbag detecting a crash, or by any car occupant pushing a button.

The eCall system will also use satellites and mobile telephony caller location to determine the location of the crashed car. Based on the location, eCall will contact the nearest emergency centre, also transmitting a minimum dataset that includes time, the direction in which the vehicle was travelling, vehicle identification, an indication if eCall was automatically or manually triggered and information about a possible service provider.

Sending the extra data is likely to reduce misunderstanding and stress and helps to eliminate language barriers between the vehicle occupants and the operator, said a Parliament news release.

And in a reassuring nod to data protection actives, Parliament has also decreed that the system must not be used to monitor a person's movements or determine his or her location unless that person has been involved in an accident.

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... "impossible" and "senseless."

Medvedev, who has actively promoted an image of himself as being internet-savvy, also said the internet and social networks should be used to make government more transparent and to increase public participation in policy work.

As examples of work done in this area, Medvedev cited efforts made to create a user-friendly interface for soliciting public feedback on new laws and for the submission of policy ideas.

The internet should be used "to expand citizens' participation in solving the most important issues, and to increase the quality of state governance," Medvedev said.

However, he also opined that the internet must be policed for false information and for illegal materials, such as child pornography and the promotion of terrorism, although insisting that Russia's internet in Russia will not be censored. [Which seemingly does not rule out censorship of politically 'inconvenient' matter emanating from beyond Russia's borders.]

"We're not talking and will not be talking about any kind of censorship on the internet. That is impossible — I've said this on multiple occasions. It's simply senseless," quoth the Prez.

But as the old proverb has it: "Fine words butter no parsnips".

Press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders last month listed Russia in its 2012 Enemies of the Internet report, classifying the mighty nation as "Under Surveillance," which means that the government has threatened internet freedom.

The report said Russia was included on the list because it "has used cyber-attacks and has arrested bloggers and netizens [internet citizens] to prevent a real online political debate."

Russia has Europe's largest number of internet users. Fifty-eight percent of Russians now use the internet 'with some regularity', compared to 30% in 2008, according to the results of a survey published Wednesday by state-run pollster VTsIOM. The percentage of Russians who use the internet daily has jumped to 38% from 11% in 2008.

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... "the reform of EU data protection rules will include easier access to one’s own data, and better data portability so that it is simple for users to transfer their data between providers.

"I also want to establish the famous right to be forgotten, which will build on existing rules to better cope with privacy risks online. I believe this right is very important in a world of increasing connectivity and unlimited search and storage.

"If users no longer want their data to be stored, and if there is no good reason to keep it online anymore, the data should be removed."

Ms Reding's words were not exactly music to the ears of the direct marketing industry which is concerned at the ambiguity of the term "the right to be forgotten" and what exactly it involves?

Caroline Roberts, director of legal and public affairs at the DMA (UK), which has been engaged in the consultation process for the proposed revisions to the directive, is not enthused at the Commissioner's statement.

"While consumers need to be protected by the right to not be contacted for marketing purposes by companies, eradicating their entire data is completely impractical because it prevents companies from meeting their legal obligations to suppress their data if they [the data subjects] choose to opt out."

The Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK data protection watchdog, believes the proposed EU framework "should not introduce a standalone right to be forgotten, which could mislead individuals and falsely raise their expectations, and be impossible to implement and enforce in practice".

The European Commission’s proposals for the new legislation are due to be published at the end of January although - given the bloc's labyrinthine decision-making process - observers believe enactment of the process may take considerably longer.

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... attempt to sell additional pre-selected services. When buying a plane ticket for example, consumers are frequently presented with pre-ticked boxes offering add-on services such as travel insurance or car rental. Currently the onus to untick the box lies with the consumer. Come 2013, however, it will be mandatory for websites to present only unticked choice boxes.

Following the new legislation, online customers can refuse to pay if they were not adequately informed prior to the purchase.

Additionally the new laws will reqire a website to make clear any "[information] about its compatibility with hardware and software and the application of any technical protection measures.

For example, "limiting the right for the consumers to make copies of the content," and that "consumers will have a right to withdraw from purchases of digital content, such as music or video downloads, but only up until the moment the actual downloading process begins."

European consumer groups and digital rights groups have hailed the new legislation.

Says Joe McNamee, head of Brussells-based online advocacy group European Digital Rights: "I think that it is probably a helpful small step in the right direction.

"Even certain otherwise reputable companies use some quite underhand tactics through 'imaginative' use of default checks in checkboxes on their websites (such as changing back to the default 'opt-in' if the user has to go back and change anything on a form).

"These companies, at least, will be forced to adopt more transparent policies by the legislation."

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