European legislation” “

Subsequent to the Protocol annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997 and the “Green Paper” of the same year (cf. the previous page), EU legislation on information and communication has been prolific. The main legislative measures are as follows: · Directive 97/66/EC of the EP and the Council, of 15/12/1997, on the treatment of personal data and the protection of private life in the telecommunications sector; · Directive 98/84/EC of the EP and of the Council, of 20/11/1998, on the protection of services with conditional access; · Communication of the Commission, of 10/11/1999, “Towards a new framework for the infrastructure of electronic communications and correlated services – Examination of 1999 of the legislative framework of communications”; · Communication of the Commission, of 26/4/2000, “Results of the public consultation on the examination of 1999 of the legislative framework of communications and guidelines for a new legislative framework”; · Communication of the Commission, of 6/6/2000, “Principles and guidelines for the audiovisual policy of the Community in the digital age”; · Directive 2002/21/EC of the EP and of the Council, of 7/3/2002, that establishes a common legislative framework for the networks and services of electronic communication (denominated “framework directive”, to be adopted by member states by 24/7/2002); · Directive 2002/19/EC of the EP and of the Council, of 7/3/2002, relating to access to the networks of electronic communication and correlated resources, and to their interconnection (denominated “access directive”, to be adopted by member states by 24/7/2003); · Directive 2002/20/EC of the EP and of the Council, of 7/3/2002, relating to authorizations for networks and services of electronic communication (denominated “authorizations directive”, to be adopted by member states by 24/7/2003); · Directive 2002/21/CE of the EP and of the Council, of 7/3/2002, relating to the universal service and to the rights of users in terms of networks and services of electronic communication (denominated “universal service directive”, to be adopted by member states by 24/7/2002); Lastly, we should add the recent “Draft Directive of the EP and of the Council relating to the use of public sector documents and their exploitation for commercial purposes”, presented by the Commission in 5/6/2002. The “framework Directive”, to be adopted by member states by 24 July 2002, establishes “a harmonized legislative framework for the discipline of electronic communication services, and defines the functions of the national authorities of control”. Article 3 forms the cornerstone of the Directive: it provides for the creation of national authorities to regulate the provisions deriving from the Directive in each member state, and makes it compulsory for states to guarantee their independence, impartiality and transparency.