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<h1 class="western" style="font-weight: normal"><font face="Times
New Roman, serif"><font size="3">First
Rousseff's UN speech, then the Montevideo statement, then
the
declaration of the new Brazil - ICANN initiative, and now
this....
Becoming a kind of a snowball effect. The question it, would
this
hold and be strong enough to be able to change the very
entrenched
status quo of power in global IG. The WGEC meeting in early
Nov will
be one place to find out if people are ready to put thei<font
size="3">r</font> money where
their mouth is..... parminder </font></font>
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<h1 class="title" id="page-title"> Internet Governance: I want your
views! </h1>
<div class="tabs"> </div>
<div class="meta submitted"> <span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2013-10-09T17:34:34+02:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Published by <a
href="http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/en/users/neelie-kroes"
title="View user profile." class="username" xml:lang=""
about="/commission_2010-2014/kroes/en/users/neelie-kroes"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Neelie
KROES</a> on Wednesday, 09/10/2013</span> </div>
<p>As digital agenda commissioner I have long fought hard to keep <strong>the
Internet driving positive change </strong>- helping Europe's
economy and society. And now we are asking for <a
href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/content/europe-and-internet-global-context">your
views on internet governance</a>.</p>
<p>I have fought especially hard for an open Internet. As a network
of networks, <strong>no one person or country owns the Internet</strong>,
but we do need <strong>a clear set of rules that everybody needs
to play by</strong>. I have defended such rules at international
conferences on the Internet, most recently at the Internet
Governance Forum in Baku – and, in particular, <a
href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-922_en.htm"
target="_blank">resisted attempts</a> by others to push for
significant increases to the scope of International Telecoms
Regulations at the recent WCIT meeting in Dubai.</p>
<p>But since then a lot of things have happened. We have heard about
<strong>massive surveillance operations by secret services</strong>,
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 <strong>deep implications for the governance of the
Internet</strong>. It is clearly influencing how <a
href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45955&Cr=General+Debate&Cr1=#.Uk0gkHea98E"
target="_blank">some international partners are thinking</a>.
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.</p>
<p>This autumn will be crucial in many ways. In Europe, I am
proposing ambitious measures to bring down barriers within our <a
href="http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/en/content/building-connected-continent">connected
continent</a>. That's a priority for me, and a priority for our
economic future, which I hope EU leaders will take seriously at
their <a
href="http://www.european-council.europa.eu/council-meetings?meeting=760391ff-5b52-4248-a076-5032044c6288&lang=en&type=EuropeanCouncil">forthcoming
summit</a>.</p>
<p>But, at the same time as we bring those barriers down, <strong>I
want to avoid new ones going up</strong>. Later this month,
Internet world leaders are meeting at the <a
href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/" target="_blank">Internet
Governance Forum</a> 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.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.itu.int/wsis/review/mpp/" target="_blank">"WSIS+10"
High-Level Event</a>, and the <a
href="http://unctad.org/en/Pages/cstd.aspx" target="_blank">UN
Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation</a>; I hope many of you
will be contributing.</p>
<p><strong>The Internet is increasingly the forum for so much of our
lives</strong>; 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.</p>
<p>This digital age needs <strong>a new social contract. </strong>Decisions
that affect the Internet shouldn't be taken just by politicians,
companies or technicians alone, without any reference to common
principles.</p>
<p>So I believe that the new social contract <strong>must be based
on sound principles</strong>. My starting point here are those
in the <a
href="http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/en/blog/i-propose-a-compact-for-the-internet"
target="_blank">Compact</a> 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.</p>
<p>But we also must have a clearer view of <strong>what we mean
when we speak of "multi-stakeholder processes"</strong>. 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 <a
href="http://www.icann.org/en/news/correspondence/kroes-to-chehade-crocker-12sep13-en.pdf"
target="_blank">legitimate concerns</a> on new domain names.</p>
<p>As you may have seen, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff recently
set out her <a
href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45955&Cr=General+Debate&Cr1=#.Uk0gkHea98E"
target="_blank">strong belief in multi-lateral cooperation</a>
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 <a
href="http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/en/blog/gipo">Global
Internet Policy Observatory</a> 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.</p>
<p>But I want to take this seriously. These are my thoughts<strong>:
but I want yours too; your ideas on how the Internet should be
governed and what Europe's role should be</strong>.</p>
<p>For the next four weeks, please share your views on the dedicated
<a
href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/content/europe-and-internet-global-context">web
page</a>.</p>
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