KEY EU STATES SEEK GRADUAL INTERNET GOVERNANCE EVOLUTION

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SUBJECT: KEY EU STATES SEEK GRADUAL INTERNET GOVERNANCE EVOLUTION


1. (SBU) SUMMARY. Officials from the Swedish EU Presidency, Germany
and France told USEU in July they favor gradual, modest evolution in
Internet governance, and said a June European Commission call for
major changes in and internationalization of Internet governance was
"extreme" and "goes too far." The officials said they do not favor
UN oversight of ICANN, the non-profit corporation currently charged
with assignment of Internet top-level domain names, and said most of
their concerns regarding Internet governance can be met via stronger
ICANN accountability. They welcomed the upcoming talks with the USG
in Washington September 1 on the future of ICANN. END SUMMARY.

NEW EU MANDATE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE DISCUSSIONS
-------------- --------------


2. (SBU) EU governments have agreed new guidelines for use by
current EU Presidency Sweden in bilateral and multilateral
discussions on Internet Governance. The guidelines were agreed by
the Member States' Permanent Representatives (ambassadors) to the EU
at a meeting on Friday, July 16th.


3. (SBU) USEU met with officials from the Swedish (Jrgen
Samuelsson),French (Romain Bonenfant),and German (Frank Goebbels)
PermReps in mid-July. Based on feedback from these meetings, it
appears likely that the guidelines are less controversial and
far-reaching than the policy statements made over the last few
months by EU Information Society and Media Commissioner Vivian
Reding.


4. (SBU) The Commission issued a press release
(http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.d o?
reference=IP/09/951&format=HTML&aged=0&langua ge =EN&guiLanguage=en)
and Communication (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/poli cy
/internet_gov/docs/communication/comm2009_277 _fin _en.pdf) on
Internet Governance in June. In addition, in a video address
(http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/redin g/
video/20090504/index_en.htm),Commissioner Reding publicly called
for the severing of the relationship between the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN - the
California-based non-profit responsible for assigning Internet
top-level domain names and overseeing many aspects of Internet
functions) and the Department of Commerce after ICANN's existing
agreement with DOC expires September 30. Reding raised the idea of
establishing a G-12 group of countries to exert oversight over
ICANN's work.


5. (SBU) The Swedish, German and French reps said they perceive the
Commission positions to be "extreme", and have been at pains to
distance their governments from the Commissioner in this regard.
They stressed their unhappiness with the Communication, emphasizing
that the Commission does not have competence in Internet Governance.
(Note: Samuelsson has an extensive background in Internet governance
issues. End note).


6. (SBU) The Member State officials were in consensus that the way
forward on Internet governance is "evolution, not revolution".
Bonenfant said he thought the French government's position had
changed significantly over the last few years, and was now much
closer to the USG's position. Bonenfant and Goebbels both rejected
the idea of UN oversight of ICANN, with a role for regimes
potentially hostile to Internet openness. Goebbels said concerns
over ICANN can be fixed with stronger accountability; both officials
said the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) should be
strengthened.


7. (SBU) Bonenfant said Member States are concerned over ICANN's
planned expansion of top level domain names (e.g. .god) to allow
private domains in 2010; "there needs to be a good
conflict-resolution mechanism in place, and can California law
(which governs ICANN) resolve such issues?" Both Bonenfant and
Goebbels said Member States do favor more sovereign nation control
over country code top level national domain names (ccTLDs - e.g.
.uk).


8. (SBU) The EU's Troika (the Swedish and upcoming Spanish
Presidencies, plus the Commission) will be meeting with NTIA's new
Assistant Secretary, Lawrence Strickling, on September 1st in
Washington, to discuss Internet governance issues.

BACKGROUND
--------------


9. (SBU) Over the past few years, the European Commission has
consistently pushed for reform of Internet governance. The EU has

BRUSSELS 00001168 002 OF 002


been uncomfortable with the existing contractual relationship
between ICANN and the USG (DOC) in particular, and pushed hard at
the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) for a
different system that includes "international, governmental
accountability." The 2005 WSIS established the Internet Governance
Forum, a non-binding multilateral forum, which has met annually to
discuss Internet issues. EU activity on Internet governance then
died down until this Spring, when Ms. Reding's statements and the
Communication revived the issue.

MURRAY