Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-04-Speech-4-048"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000504.5.4-048"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Today, Parliament adopted the common position on the legal aspects of electronic commerce as it stands. Everyone will acknowledge the value of clear regulations in a continually developing field where the economic and legal stakes are considerable. I shall not dwell on aspects which have already been extensively discussed.
I should like at this point to return to one aspect I consider more fundamental. Today we are setting regulations, quite rightly, for the litigation which may arise from impersonal, and therefore risky, electronic commercial transactions. It is now imperative that we consider what steps we can take in advance to prevent such problems arising and, in order to achieve this, primarily combat the rationale according to which, in a world which is losing its most sacred ethical standards, e-commerce should be just another phase in the development of an unregulated society and one which therefore, as we can observe, inevitably places the very weakest at a disadvantage.
There is no question here of banning an extraordinary instrument of culture and openness. What we have to do is be as demanding with this as we are, legitimately, with any other form of trade. And now we are getting to the heart of the matter: e-commerce and, more generally, the Internet, are the expression of a society without legitimate and, ultimately, human territorial limits.
This precious asset of freedom is caricatured by those who, deliberately or otherwise, promote the destruction of protective ethical standards. Indeed, freedom only really exists, in any society, when each person has the legal capacity to accept or reject, in full knowledge of the facts, what is being offered to him and not just to engage in litigation after the fact, which gives rise to many problems, as we have clearly seen in the course of these debates.
The law must be the expression of a general political vision, a social project. Otherwise, all it can do is follow after developments that it can neither anticipate nor control. International or supranational structures never have that extra spark of spirit which engenders motivating ideas and collective commitment. The European Union is no exception."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples