Ten European Net privacy and freedom groups have banded together to form an international civil rights group.

Called European Digital Rights (EDRi), the new organisation will be based in Brussels, where it will "focus its activities towards developments in the European Union and the Council of Europe". This is necessary, because rulings on privacy and interception are coming more and at an EU, and the introduction of new civil rights-threatening regulation is coming at an increasing pace, the group says.

EDRi will also act as an umbrella under which "existing European privacy and freedoms organisations work together in raising awareness of policy makers and the public about the upcoming threats to our privacy and freedoms".

Its remit includes: data retention requirements, telecommunications interception, the cyber-crime
treaty, initiatives for rating and filtering of internet content, notice and takedown procedures of websites and fair use restrictions.

European Digital Rights founding members

• Bits of Freedom (Netherlands)
  
• Chaos Computer Club (CCC, Germany)
  
• Digital Rights (Denmark)
  
• Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFi, Finland),
• Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR, UK)
  
• Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft (FITUG, Germany)
  
• Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire (IRIS, France)
  
• Privacy International (UK)
  
• Quintessenz (Austria)
  
• Verein für Internet-Benutzer (VIBE!AT, Austria)
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