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EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding has proposed the establishment of a G12 to govern the Internet, to replace the current US-driven system. However, a global deal seems unlikely before October, when the current agreement expires.
Like telephones, the Internet relies on numbers which identify computers and allow them to connect to one another. This identification process is coordinated at global level by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
ICANN has been established as a not-for-profit corporation in 1998 with the backing of Washington.
The agreement with the US administration is renewed every three years. The last one was signed in 2006.
ICANN is responsible for deciding the global top level domains, such as .com or .eu and for managing the Internet core directory.
The EU and other countries around the world have acknowledged the success story of the US-born Internet, but now increasingly challenge the United States' sole control of Internet governance.
Interview: Reding: EU to govern Internet of the future
"I trust that [US] President [Barack] Obama will have the courage, the wisdom and the respect for the global nature of the Internet to pave the way in September for a new, more accountable, more transparent, more democratic and more multilateral form of Internet governance," Reding said
on Monday.
She proposed wide-ranging reform of the current governance of the Net, which would include "an independent judicial body" and "a multilateral forum for governments to discuss policy and security issues" related to the Internet. The forum should be structured as a G12, composed by two representatives from Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia, one from Oceania, and the chairman of ICANN as a non-voting member.
Under the current system, ICANN is subject to US legislation, although Washington is nominally not in charge of any operative decision. A Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), composed of over 100 national representatives, currently issues non-binding opinions to ICANN.
Under Reding's proposed model, the GAC would be complemented by a smaller and more influential G12, which "would provide a swift reaction in case of threats to the stability, security and openness of the Internet," she said.
Calls for change in Internet governance are not new and are common from the EU, China, Russia and other heavyweights. The issue has resurfaced now because a three-year contract signed between ICANN and the US administration will expire in October 2009.
However, there is little chance of the global community finding agreement on a subject which has become highly controversial in recent years. "I do not think it is right now a priority of international diplomacy, and in any case there has been no agreement on the issue at EU level either," a Brussels-based Internet governance expert told EurActiv on condition of anonimity.
"ICANN continues to support the multi-stakeholder model as the best way to ensure accountability to all stakeholders, a model in which no particular government, group of governments, or entity of any type takes precedence over any other," said Brad White, director of media affairs at ICANN, in a statement which made clear that "global governments are already involved in ICANN policy development through the Governmental Advisory Committee".
The Commission will today hold a public hearing
on Internet governance in Brussels.
(6 May 2009)
(4 May 2009) [FR]
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