Snippets from the EGP Manifesto : (3) A digital Bill of Rights

 

The Greens in the European Parliament are at the forefront of the fight for digital rights. We helped stop the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) and we are fighting for strong protection of personal data, for the right to privacy and for strict net neutrality. Now it is time to defend and protect both European citizens and the internet from pervasive corporate and governmental surveillance and to safeguard fundamental rights in the digital age. Personal data belongs to individual citizens, not to companies or governments. Privacy must be respected. The data retention law, which obliges telecom providers to store data about whom citizens communicate with, is a serious mistake and must be abolished.*   Governments have to abide by their own laws. Whilst national security is important, personal freedoms and liberties must not be overridden. Governments must ensure that national security agencies work for all citizens to secure freedom and liberty for everybody. (EGP 2014 Manifesto section entitled  : A Digital Bill of Rights).

 

* The European Court of Justice has early in April 2014 declared as invalid the Data Retention Directive.

Snippets from the EGP Manifesto: (2) Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

The European Green Party 2014 Electoral Manifesto makes the position of the Greens clear on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership(TTIP).

It states the following: Presently, many bilateral EU trade deals are being negotiated, in particular the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States. Greens contest the lack of transparency of these negotiations, where important democratic choices are on the agenda. Greens not only defend our environmental, health, agriculture and food, consumer and labour standards, public interests and data protection, but also the possibility of strengthening them to implement the Green New Deal. We oppose biotech and toxic financial products marketed in the US being automatically approved for the EU. We draw clear red lines against any weakening of EU legislation. We refuse, through the inclusion of international investor-state dispute settlement in trade agreements, to allow private companies to sue democratically elected governments in order to protect corporate interests against social or environmental reforms. We mobilize against any trade agreement that does not honour these principles and therefore we oppose TTIP in its current form. ((EGP 2014 Manifesto section entitled  : For a Fair Trade Policy).

For more information you may view the EGP posiiton paper on TTIP entitled : Too Many Untrustworthy Promises and Real Risks