Jean-Jacques Sahel leads Skype's Government Relations team in the EU.

In our drive to promote innovation and users' rights on the Internet, the last few weeks have been simply amazing. An update is due.

Last month, we were all surprised that the European Parliament took a stand and went against EU governments by adopting by a very large majority an amendment to the proposed revised EU telecoms regulations, which ensures that Internet users can only be disconnected upon receipt of a proper court order, rather than an administrative order.

Then last week (9 June), the French Constitutional Court (the equivalent of the Supreme Court in the US or the 'Law Lords' for the English Courts), citing the founding principles of the French Republic the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, confirmed that a similar legal proposal in France to disconnect users suspected of downloading illegal material was not acceptable.

First, this is because it negates the presumption of innocence. Secondly, and crucially, the Court underlined that powers to disconnect a user from the Internet amount to restricting freedom of expression and communication - the freedom to speak, write and print (See the decision and in particular Article 16 which details that "[...] pouvoirs peuvent conduire à restreindre l'exercice, par toute personne, de son droit de s'exprimer et de communiquer librement, notamment depuis son domicile [...]". Now get on to your favourite online translation website :)

When they met last Thursday 12 June at their regular Council of Telecoms Ministers, as expected the EU governments formally refused to accept the will of the European Parliament, which means that the review of EU telecoms regulations will resume in the Autumn, when the two sides will try to come to a compromise on this amendment on fundamental user freedoms.

This next, and final, phase of the negotiation should be fun. It goes to some of the more fundamental issues in society and for the Internet. For us at Skype, it's not a theoretical debate however: Skype users are regularly refused their right to express themselves and communicate freely. And it's not only governments that do that: some network operators fancy themselves as 21st century censors, degrading, blocking, discriminately charging for Skype traffic just because they don't like it.

Thankfully, not all network operators are that short-sighted, others operators know that Skype can benefit everyone - just check out the latest offer from the mobile operator '3' in the UK, which is just so cool - giving you free Skype to Skype calls from your mobile without the need to top up ever again (See here and here).

There was some news on this front too last week, and the picture is getting even more confusing: both Vodafone and T-Mobile (in Germany) have announced that they are not going to block Skype and VoIP anymore. So they have resolved their technical problems, then, have they? Well, sort of.

We always knew, and explained, that Skype works perfectly well on mobile networks and is a low-bandwidth application (only 8-20 kbps on average), so technical arguments for blocking Skype wouldn't last long. Instead they're now asking customers to pay extra if they want to use Skype.

Why are they introducing this measure, anyway? Errrr... So far, there's some really vague explanation on the T-Mobile website citing technical constraints and to be fair, it is difficult to gauge from the short argument they give what exactly they are referring to. As for Vodafone, they have yet to publish anything formal. The only thing we have from them is a speech by one executive given at the VIB Mobile Regulation and Competition Law conference in Brussels on 10 June 2009, who says according to the press that it's got nothing to do with technical difficulties, but with economic considerations:

"If you don't want to make a commitment to use voice, it is effectively saying 'I would like to substitute existing voice usage for potentially voip and other services'. You can do that, but you can't do it without making some spending commitment on voice services as well. Our investment in the customer, on the assumption they would spend a certain amount each month would disappear. That makes the economics unsustainable."

So it's about continuing to make large profits, then, not a technical constraint as has been claimed all along? No wonder policymakers, like consumers, find all this confusing.

Then yesterday (Tuesday 16th June) the Digital Britain plan (PDF) was released. In the UK, it's not just Skype usage but even access to the Skype.com website that is censored by some mobile operators. In parallel, millions of people in Britain work in ICT and creative industries, representing 8% of UK GDP. And yet, there does not seem to be much in the report about putting in place policies to encourage innovation in services and applications, or about UK Internet users and their right to access and use the services and apps of their choice online. We will be trying to engage with the UK authorities, especially to ensure that their future work about encouraging more people to access and use the Internet, delivering competition and meaningful consumer choice, and maximising the economic and social benefits of the Internet, is not stifled by censorship or restrictive actions imposed by self-interested companies.

Looking ahead, what do we need European governments and parliamentarians to do? We think that the EU telecoms legislation needs to be finalised in a way that clearly supports fundamental human rights - if the EU doesn't show the way in human rights, who will?

EU law should ensure that citizens can exercise their freedom of expression and communication and can benefit from Internet access that is open, taking into account the requirements expressed by users to make use of, and distribute, content, applications and services on the Internet. Access to Internet content, services and applications, as confirmed by the French Conseil Constitutionnel, is an explicit part of the fundamental rights of citizens to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference and regardless of frontiers. Additionally, unrestricted Internet access to content, services and applications is also a necessity for the preservation of the effectiveness of European and national policies designed to combat social exclusion, promote education, training, employment, etc.

As for all of us, Skype users? We should make our voice heard. If you can't use Skype on your mobile for any reason, call your ISP and complain. Write to your local politician and/or communications regulator, and let them know there is something very wrong going on with what your Internet provider is letting you access. More on that soon.