[governance] Neelie Kroes affirms Rousseff's positions, and adds some fire of her own

[parminder]

  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 their money where their
  mouth is..... parminder


  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>.

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