Brussels, 17/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, has warmly welcomed the announcement of the United States government on 14 March to no longer play a central role in the allocation of internet domain names. This will allow for more global multi-stakeholder of internet governance. The European Commission has strongly backed this approach and Commissioner Kroes was delighted to announce that “this is an historical step in making internet governance truly global, and marks major progress towards the development of a multi-stakeholder model”.
In its press release, the US government announced that it would be bringing the stakeholders together throughout the world to develop a proposal to ensure the transition in this area. It will still need to be approved by the various stakeholders affected and will be based on the following principles: 1) support and encourage the multipartite model; 2) maintain security, stability and resilience in the system managing internet domain names; 3) meet the needs and expectations of users and partners responsible for managing domain names at a global level; 4) ensure an open internet. In April, a conference will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where global partners will discuss the future of internet governance. Commissioner Kroes stated that “the European Commission will work together with the US and with all global stakeholders” to implement the globalisation of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority's (IANA) functions, “in a manner that secures the open internet and that will underpin human rights”. Since 1998, the management of internet domains has been overseen by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and the US Department for Trade. Since 2009, the European Commission and other global partners have been criticising the way this body has been operating. More recently, on 12 February, the Commission adopted a communication calling for greater internet transparency (see EUROPE 11017). (IL)