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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>For your information </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=jlfullsack@wanadoo.fr href="mailto:jlfullsack@wanadoo.fr">jlfullsack</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=gov@wsis-gov.org href="mailto:gov@wsis-gov.org">WSIS CS
WG on Information Networks Governance</A> ; <A title=wsis-euc@fsfeurope.org
href="mailto:wsis-euc@fsfeurope.org">Caucus Europe</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=catherine.trautmann@wanadoo.fr
href="mailto:catherine.trautmann@wanadoo.fr">Catherine Trautmann</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, April 08, 2009 5:42 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Policy manoeuvres around a European IGF</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear all</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The above event announcement that was
sent yesterday raises some serious concerns in my opinion.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The European IGF is pending since January 2008
when it was announced and unanimously adopted by the European Parliament in
Strasbourg (see my report on this session sent to the euc list). Since nothing
happened in the meantime, EuroDig -launched by some of our colleagues with
the strong support of the Council of Europe in October 2008- questioned the two
MEPs attending the meeting about the urgent necessity for -at last-
setting up this European IGF as proposed by the final documents of the WSIS
(i.e. multistakeholder based and open to CS). Both Catherine Trautmann
and </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Malcolm Harbour gave their strong
support to that.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The "hearing" in Brussels mentioned below is
likely to be the response of the EU Commission to our concerns.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>However it is very far from the European
CS expectations for a couple of reasons, and therefore unacceptable for us.
Among these reasons : </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>First : It is published just one week before the
meeting, thus placing CS organisations concerned before a "fait accompli", and
therefore unable to prepare the meeting and coordinate different organisations
for a fruitful participation.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Second : There won't be any representative of the
European CS in the discussion panels. In fact, these are organised
"around" private sector speakers. Patrik Faltstrom who is alternatively a
manager at Cisco, a representative of the Swedish government or a NGO member (as
chair or something like of a Swedish ICT users organisation), depending on the
nature of the meeting, definitely isn't a CS representative !</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>Third : Restricting the role of the European CS, who is engaged in the WSIS
process since its very beginning, to just being a possible single answerer
to the EC or EP selected questions during a couple of minutes, is an
obvious sign of contempt for all of its organisations and members. Moreover,
this attitude of the Commission (with or without the EP's support) strongly
infringes the framework and the procedures based on multistakeholder principles
edicted by the WSIS and agreed on by all European governments in
Tunis. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>At last, I'd kindly ask our politicians in Brussels to draw their
inspiration from the sub-regional African IGFs which are organized and are
working as asked for by the WSIS. I suggest them to ask their African
counterparts for some advice and help. In the framework of the
EU-ACP Agreement for instance. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>For all these reasons, I strongly ask EU CS to boycott such a meeting.
</DIV>
<DIV>All the best</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Jean-Louis Fullsack</DIV>
<DIV>CSDPTT</DIV>
<DIV>Focal person to the EP of the European CS accredited to the WSIS </DIV>
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