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Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 17:26:55 +0100
From: jaromil <jaromil at dyne.org>
To: cyber-rights at ecn.org
Subject: [cyber~rights] Updated Report on setting up European Digital Rights


Updated Report on setting up European Digital Rights

by Maurice Wessling
26 march 2002


What is this?

This report describes the status of founding a European association to
defend and promote civil rights in the field of information- and
communication technology.

This report is not an activity programme but deals with the practical
and legal aspects of the founding.


Summary

A number of European civil liberties NGOs that work in the field of
new technology (see: Appendix I) have reached a rough consensus on
founding a European association to effectively defend and promote
civil rights in the field of information- and communication
technology.

A steering group consisting of representatives of the involved NGOs
has been formed in Amsterdam which will take the necessary steps to
legally found the association and decide on basic principles of
structure and activities.

The proposed name for the organisation is European Digital Rights and
the proposed legal entity is an international non-profit association
under Belgium law. The members will be civil rights NGOs.

A small committee is drafting the statutes.


Amsterdam meeting

Several European GILC members have been talking about a European
organisation for a few years but the idea became more serious after a
proposal in the spring of 2001. The idea was discussed and the
proposals became more detailed.

In January 2002 the opportunity for a meeting in Amsterdam emerged in
conjunction with an international NGO meeting about the Cyber-crime
Treaty. During this meeting a rough consensus on a set of principles
was agreed. Eight European GILC members and one European non-GILC
organisation attended the meeting. Two US based organisations attended
the meeting as observers (present because of an earlier meeting that
day on the Cyber-crime Treaty). An attendee list is found in Appendix
I.

Because of a similar initiative to set up a European organisation (EFF
Europe), Ville Oksanen of EFF Finland reported on the status of a
December 2001 meeting in Berlin. With one exception, all organisations
present in Berlin were also present in Amsterdam. Because the EFF
Europe initiative is primarily based on a large base of concerned
individuals, European Digital Rights should look into proposals to
involve the people of EFF Europe. This could be done by opening
European Digital Rights for supporting membership for individuals,
working groups and by involving people on a national level in the
organisations that are members of European Digital Rights.

The meeting was concluded with the forming of a steering group
responsible for the legal incorporation of the association. Maurice
Wessling chairs the steering group.


Agreed principles

1. Mission

There is an urgent need for a greater and more effective
representation to European institutions on civil rights in the field
of information- and communication technology.

The objective of the organisation is to effectively represent the
ideas of its member organisations (and subsequently their members)
towards the European institutions. The organisation will also serve as
a platform for cooperation and common activities and combine
influence, experience, knowledge, and policy research of the member
organisations.

The organisation's focus will be the protection of rights in the field
of information- and communication technology. This interest includes,
but is not limited to, the right of communications and data privacy,
the right of freedom of expression, the promotion of fair intellectual
property rights use and the promotion of civil society.

2. Structure

The most effective mechanism to achieve the objective will be a
legally incorporated organisation combining the experience and
representing the ideas of European civil rights NGOs in the field of
technology.

The members of the association are civil rights NGOs. The members can
decide how to involve individuals through working groups, advisory
councils or other structures to enable input, activities and
campaigns.

A steering group consisting of founding members drawn from European
NGOs will legally incorporate the proposed organisation.

A limited number of founding members and slow growth of the
association will enhance stability and coherence. Expansion of the
organisation will be a natural process and shall take place after the
founding in a speed to be determined by the members. The association
will handle new applications for membership on the basis of
introduction.

The members of the board will be appointed in their personal capacity.

The board can appoint staff to handle daily operations or otherwise
delegate activities.

3. Activities of the association

a) engage in advocacy at a national and international level such
as making representations to bodies such as the European Union, the
Council of Europe, the OECD and the United Nations;

b) to monitor and report, raise awareness of and to provide
education about threats to civil rights in the field of information-
and communication technology;

c) conduct policy research and offer the result to the public and
to national and international bodies;

d) serve as a platform for cooperation and common activities and
combine influence, experience, knowledge, and research of the members;

e) organise and participate in conferences, public events and
campaigns.


Getting advice

For advice on the legal status of European Digital Rights the
assistance of the European Citizen Action Service (www.ecas.org) was
sought. ECAS has longstanding experience with international NGO's that
want to establish themselves in Brussels.

Maurice Wessling (Bits of Freedom, NL) and Gus Hosein (Privacy
International, UK) went to Brussels to meet with ECAS and received
very useful information and advice, which is used in this report.


Association internationale sans but lucrative

After reading the set of principles and the structure as discussed in
Amsterdam ECAS advised to establish an "Association internationale
sans but lucrative" (AISBL) -- international non-profit association --
under Belgian law. It is tailored to meet the needs of the many
associations based in Belgium due to the presence of intergovernmental
organisations. The association does not need to have members from
Belgium and ECAS can function as the legal address of European Digital
Rights.

An Association internationale sans but lucrative is a non-profit
organisation with a board chosen by its members (the general
assembly). The statutes should include:

- the name and registered office
- purpose / mission statement
- who can be a member, rights and obligations of the members
- rules for admission, resignation, exclusion
- rules of governance for the general assembly and the board
(composition, powers, meetings, voting procedures)
- rules and process for dissolution

Internal regulations agreed by the general assembly can also define an
advisory board and supporting membership.


Drafting and founding

The Association internationale sans but lucrative is founded by
natural persons by law. In the case of European Digital Rights those
would be the representatives of the founding members. In the signed
minutes of a meeting these persons would then agree to establish the
association and its statutes. The statutes however can define that
membership is limited to organisations. The founding by natural
persons is therefore a technical matter and is independent from how
membership is defined.

The immediate steps to found the organisation are:

- setting up a small committee to start drafting the statutes,
which can then be discussed in various stages by the steering group
- a formal meeting with signed minutes where the statutes can be agreed upon
- filing the minutes and statutes with the Belgium ministry of Justice
- parallel to this the steering group should apply for funding from
various sources and announce the association to the public.

The drafting can be assisted by an ECAS lawyer with experience in this
particular legal entity.

At the moment of writing this report a committee of Maurice Wessling
(Bits of Freedom, NL), Gus Hosein (Privacy International, UK) and
Tanja Krabbe (Digital Rights, DK) are drafting the statutes with the
support of an ECAS lawyer.


Taxes

Tax rules for an international non-profit association in Belgium are
good. No taxes are imposed on received gifts.

If tax-exempt donations can be made to European Digital Rights is
totally dependent on the country of residence of the donator.
Everything in the statutes should of course reflect the non-profit
goals and its ability to receive donations to accommodate this.


Liability

In the performance of their functions, the members of the board are
not personally liable towards third parties.


Funding

ECAS found the proposed structure sensible, and indeed efficient when
applying for EU funding. It underlines the international dimension of
the organisation, something the Commission is always very keen on
seeing demonstrated. There is systematically a cross-border dimension
to conditions for funding. Foundation funding may very well be
different from EU rules.


Name

The proposed name for the association is

European Digital Rights

EDRi

with the domain edri.org

Other names have been proposed, most notably european cyber liberties
union and european civil liberties union. After discussions it was
noted that the word cyber is anachronistic. For more generic names
there are some serious implications. The association and its members
are focused on civil rights in the field of technology. There maybe be
a few exceptions but that is the prime focus. By choosing a very
generic name like european civil liberties union we would create a lot
of confusion. We are not setting up a euro-version of the ACLU,
dealing with immigrant's rights, lesbian and gay rights and racial
equality. These are important issues but they are not a part of the
work and experience of the founding members. For this reason the name
should reflect the substance of the association.


Appendix I

Attendee list of the Amsterdam meeting on January 19th 2002

Simon Davies <s.g.davies at lse.ac.uk>
Gus Hosein <gus at privacy.org>
David Banisar <dbanisar at privacy.org>
Ian Brown <i.brown at cs.ucl.ac.uk>
UK
Privacy International
www.privacyinternational.org

Caspar Bowden <cb at fipr.org>
Desiree Miloshevic <desiree at relax.co.uk>
UK
Foundation for Information Policy Research
www.fipr.org

Maurice Wessling <maurice at bof.nl>
Netherlands
Bits of Freedom
www.bof.nl

Tanja Krabbe <tak at digitalrights.dk>
Per Helge S?rensen <phs at digitalrights.dk>
Denmark
Digital Rights
www.digitalrights.dk

Herbert <h at quintessenz.org>
Austria
Quintessenz
www.quintessenz.org

Ville Oksanen <ville at oksanen.net>
Finland
EFF Finland
www.effi.org

Meryem Marzouki <meryem.marzouki at dial.oleane.com>
France
IRIS
www.iris.sgdg.org

Andy Mueller-Maguhn <andy at ccc.de>
Germany
Chaos Computer Club
www.ccc.de

Patrick Goltzsch <patrick.goltzsch at hanse.de>
Germany
Fitug
www.fitug.de


Observers

Barry Steinhardt <barrys at aclu.org>
USA
ACLU
www.aclu.org

Sarah Andrews <andrews at epic.org>
Cedric Laurant <chlaurant at epic.org>
USA
EPIC
www.epic.org

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