European Action Day #WePromiseEU

By EDRi · May 15, 2014

Presse release – Today, a coalition of 36 civil rights organisations from all over Europe invites everyone to participate in a EU-wide action day to demand that the next European Parliament defends digital civil and human rights.

The European Parliament is taking more and more decisions that have a direct impact on our rights and freedoms. In the past five years, and other civil rights organisations from across Europe have been fighting for better data protection and privacy rules, the free and open internet, access to information and advocating for copyright reforms.

We have to fight for an open and democratic internet! We can act now to push for positive measures to support our freedoms and to make sure that there will not be more European proposals to carry out surveillance, to censor the Internet or to stifle free speech. This is our opportunity to shape sustainable technology policies from the very beginning of a new European parliamentary term,

says Joe McNamee from European Digital Rights.

The WePromise.eu action day takes place today across Europe. Debates between candidates and social media actions are organised to raise awareness of the importance of actively reminding decision makers about defending the digital civil rights for the citizens who have elected them. The goal is to make sure that the new session of the European Parliament understands, promotes and defends our freedoms online.

The idea of the WePromise.eu is simple: Candidates promise to support a Charter of ten digital rights principles. Citizens promise to vote – for candidates who have, by election day, signed the Charter. The campaign was initiated by European Digital Rights (EDRi) a network of 36 civil rights organisations run in cooperation with international activist group GoVeto. It now has the support of fifteen other organisations including Wikimedia Germany, Reporters without Borders and the German national consumer protection association VZBV. Over 340 candidates for the European Parliament from 25 Member States have already signed the Charter.

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