[Chapter-delegates] Neelie Kroes wants to hear from us.

[Veni Markovski]

  Internet Governance: I want your views!

Published by Neelie KROES 
<http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/en/users/neelie-kroes> 
on Wednesday, 09/10/2013

As digital agenda commissioner I have long fought hard to keep *the 
Internet driving positive change *- helping Europe's economy and 
society. And now we are asking for your views on internet governance 
<https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/content/europe-and-internet-global-context>.

I have fought especially hard for an open Internet. As a network of 
networks, *no one person or country owns the Internet*, but we do need 
*a clear set of rules that everybody needs to play by*. I have defended 
such rules at international conferences on the Internet, most recently 
at the Internet Governance Forum in Baku -- and, in particular, resisted 
attempts <http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-922_en.htm> by 
others to push for significant increases to the scope of International 
Telecoms Regulations at the recent WCIT meeting in Dubai.

But since then a lot of things have happened. We have heard about 
*massive surveillance operations by secret services*, within Europe as 
well as the US. Of course we are extremely concerned by what that means 
for personal data protection. But this also has *deep implications for 
the governance of the Internet*. It is clearly influencing how some 
international partners are thinking 
<http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45955&Cr=General+Debate&Cr1=#.Uk0gkHea98E>. 
And it is even more important now that we agree on common principles for 
Internet governance, and how decisions are made in all Internet-related 
matters.

This autumn will be crucial in many ways. In Europe, I am proposing 
ambitious measures to bring down barriers within our connected continent 
<http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/en/content/building-connected-continent>. 
That's a priority for me, and a priority for our economic future, which 
I hope EU leaders will take seriously at their forthcoming summit 
<http://www.european-council.europa.eu/council-meetings?meeting=760391ff-5b52-4248-a076-5032044c6288&lang=en&type=EuropeanCouncil>.

But, at the same time as we bring those barriers down, *I want to avoid 
new ones going up*. Later this month, Internet world leaders are meeting 
at the Internet Governance Forum <http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/> in 
Bali. I am sorry that, for the first time, I cannot be there in person 
myself. But I would like to contribute, both to make clear how closely 
and seriously we are watching this debate, and to stress the importance 
of having a clear and robust framework for Internet Governance and 
policy-making as soon as possible.

As it stands today, the conclusions of the World Summit on the 
Information Society (WSIS) are the only international-level political 
agreement on Internet governance; and they are the subject of several 
consultations. Particularly important among those consultations are the 
discussions in the "WSIS+10" High-Level Event 
<http://www.itu.int/wsis/review/mpp/>, and the UN Working Group on 
Enhanced Cooperation <http://unctad.org/en/Pages/cstd.aspx>; I hope many 
of you will be contributing.

*The Internet is increasingly the forum for so much of our lives*; from 
transacting through commerce or banking; to interacting through social 
networks; to communicating with governments or pushing for democratic 
change. It's clear to me that the Internet is a European strategic 
domain -- and, although the internet is a different kind of place to the 
"real world", our stance towards it should be underpinned by just the 
same values, priorities and interests as everything else.

This digital age needs *a new social contract. *Decisions that affect 
the Internet shouldn't be taken just by politicians, companies or 
technicians alone, without any reference to common principles.

So I believe that the new social contract *must be based on sound 
principles*. My starting point here are those in the Compact 
<http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/en/blog/i-propose-a-compact-for-the-internet> 
I first floated a couple of years ago; like that the Internet should 
remain open, unified, pro-democratic, enabling trust and confidence, and 
based on transparent, multi-stakeholder governance. Recent news shows 
just how fragile this balance of values can be; important efforts to 
tackle terrorist threats cannot be at the expense of fundamental freedoms.

But we also must have a clearer view of *what we mean when we speak of 
"multi-stakeholder processes"*. I worry that without a clear definition, 
everyone will claim that their decision processes are inclusive and 
transparent, when in practice they are not -- as was shown recently, 
when the Governmental Advisory Committee of ICANN pressed on regardless 
- in spite of the EU's legitimate concerns 
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/correspondence/kroes-to-chehade-crocker-12sep13-en.pdf> 
on new domain names.

As you may have seen, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff recently set 
out her strong belief in multi-lateral cooperation 
<http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45955&Cr=General+Debate&Cr1=#.Uk0gkHea98E> 
as a basis for Internet governance. I am looking forward to seeing 
further details -- but in principle I very much support that line. Plus, 
our future Global Internet Policy Observatory 
<http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/en/blog/gipo> will help 
give a more balanced view of how the Internet should be governed. And I 
know many of these issues will also be discussed in Bali.

But I want to take this seriously. These are my thoughts*: but I want 
yours too; your ideas on how the Internet should be governed and what 
Europe's role should be*.

For the next four weeks, please share your views on the dedicated web 
page 
<https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/content/europe-and-internet-global-context>.



-- 

Best,
Veni Markovski
http://www.veni.com
https://www.facebook.com/venimarkovski
https://twitter.com/veni

The opinions expressed above are those of the
author, not of any organizations, associated
with or related to him in any given way.

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