An unexpected about-face by the European Union during preparatory talks for the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will likely postpone any agreements on the contentious issue of Internet governance to another round of discussions before the planned Tunis, Tunisia, gathering in November.
Government officials have been meeting in Geneva since Sept. 19 but have so far failed to reach a consensus on Internet governance, according to a spokeswoman for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an arm of the United Nations (U.N.), which is hosting the Net event.
Internet governance is a prickly issue that split delegates attending the first WSIS in Geneva nearly two years ago and forced U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish a separate task forces to study it.
In an unexpected move late Wednesday, the E.U. parted with the U.S. by calling for the creation of a new "forum" and a new "model of international cooperation," which could radically change if not completely override ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the U.S.-led group that currently manages crucial Internet infrastructure such as domain names, root servers and IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.
Previously, the E.U. was aligned with the U.S. in supporting the status quo, which essentially meant keeping ICANN as the body in charge of managing the Internet. Now the European government body is joining most other countries in demanding a global body to take over supervision of the Net.
The E.U. proposal calls for a new forum to address policy issues at a global level but not to perform oversight tasks, and also for a new cooperation model to manage global allocation of IP number blocks, procedures for changing the root file system and rules for the DNS (domain name system), among other things.
The proposal also calls for the role of government in the new cooperation model to be "mainly focused on principle issues of public policy, excluding any involvement in the day-to-day operations" and for the new model to build on "existing mechanisms or institutions" rather them replace them.
"U.S. delegates really didn't expect this move," said ITU spokeswoman Sarah Parkes. "They responded with a terse, handwritten note."
The note, a copy of which IDG News Service has obtained, says that the U.S. is committed to take no action that would "adversely impact the security or stability" of the DNS and will maintain its "historic role" in authorizing changes to the root zone file.
In an attempt to diffuse the growing spat, Martin Selmayr, spokesman for E.U. Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding, said Friday in Brussels that there is no change in the E.U.'s position, which was adopted in a June telecom council with ministers and presented in Geneva this week as part of preparations for the WSIS summit in Tunis. "We are looking for a new cooperation model which allows Internet governance on the basis of cooperation with all governments and stakeholders because the Internet is a global infrastructure," he said.
In response to a question about how likely it is to reach a consensus on Internet governance at the summit, Selmayr said the European Commission doesn't view the positions as being that far apart and even though a consensus will not be reached at the meetings in Geneva, that doesn't mean there won't be one in November.
"We have things in common with the U.S." Selmayr said. "We think it's not for governments to control the Internet. We need more involvement of the private sector and the current workings of ICANN are very efficient but we need a new model of international cooperation."
The PrepCom-3 meeting in Geneva ends Friday. If delegates part without agreement, they are considering holding another round of talks before the Tunis summit, which begins Nov. 16., according to Parkes.
John Blau is Dusseldorf correspondent for the IDG News Service.
