[Gigaom] Net neutrality looks doomed in Europe before it even gets started

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Here come more leaks, and more reasons to suspect that the European Union is not going to get the hard-won net neutrality law it seemed likely to get just months ago. […]

After last week’s letter from new European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to his commissioners, suggesting that former digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes’s “Telecom Package” will be pulled and started again as a “Digital Single Market Package”, digital rights group EDRi has published documents that appear to show the neutering of that legislative package’s net neutrality provisions. […]

Gone: The definition of “net neutrality”. Gone: The definition of “specialized services”. Instead, the documents say that discussions are “converging” around a “principles-based approach, in order not to inhibit innovation and to avoid technological developments making the regulation obsolete.” […]

PS — In a public Q&A session this afternoon, new digital economy commissioner Günther Oettinger (who bailed on the session after a surprisingly short 40 minutes) said: “Our proposal for internal market telecommunications legislation is aimed at clearly defining what is meant by network neutrality.” In the context of the Council removing such clear definitions from the Telecom Package, this may again suggest that the compromise will be torn up and the legislative process rebooted.

Net neutrality looks doomed in Europe before it even gets started