EC-PoP Statement of Support for ICANN Proposal

[MURON Olivier BD/DINU <olivier.muron@francetelecom.fr>]

 Tuesday, October 13th 1998

 European Commission Panel of Participants (EC-PoP):
 Statement of Support for ICANN Proposal
 ---------------------------------------


 The members of the EC Panel of Participants recognize the 
 value of IANA's efforts to build consensus on this matter. 
 The EC-PoP is pleased to acknowledge that significant 
 progress has been made since the fourth iteration of the
 draft and that most of the issues identified by the EC-PoP
 have been addressed.
 
 The members the EC-PoP believe that the proposal submitted 
 by ICANN is a realistic basis for the launch of the new 
 Corporation, provided that the Initial Board take action 
 to correct the following shortcomings:

 - Improve safeguards against extra-territorial application 
   of US law and US public policies. The proposed Articles of 
   Association and Bylaws provide insufficient protection against 
   the possible overruling of international law or other 
   countries' laws, social concepts and cultural values.

 - Ensure more balanced international representation. 
   All stakeholder groups, sectoral and regional, need to be 
   reassured that their interests will be equitably represented 
   on the Board - we are aware that some have expressed concern 
   on this respect -. In the current draft, more than 50 percent 
   of the members of the full final Board could come from a single 
   region such as North America or Europe. By the time the Bylaws 
   are reviewed as per Article V, Section 4,Paragraph a, this 
   threshold should be reduced to one third of the total number 
   of board members and provision should be made for an equitable 
   representation of all stakeholders interests.

The EC-PoP would like to point out that delays in incorporating 
the new IANA can create lasting imbalances with respect to
the needed international and competititive equilibrium. 
Smooth implementation of ICANN and its supporting organisations
is key to preserving the stability of the Internet.

About the EC Panel of Participants (EC-PoP)
-------------------------------------------

 On July 7th 1998 the European Commission called for a European 
 consultative meeting as preparation for the IFWP meetings, the 
 results of this meeting can be found at:
 http://www.ispo.cec.be/eif/dns/conclusions.html

 One of the results from that meeting was the establishment 
 of an EC Panel of Participants (EC-PoP), a European group of 
 stakeholder representatives, to discussed a common position 
 in the IFWP process and to advise the EC.

 The EC-PoP has responded on September 9 to the IANA's third draft 
 issued on August 24, 1988,
 see: http://www.ispo.cec.be/eif/dns/statement.html.


 The EC-PoP has expressed serious concerns about the NSI-IANA
 cooperative draft (fourth draft issued on September 17, 1998),
 see http://www.ispo.cec.be/eif/dns/ec-pop.html.

***************************************************************


On behalf of the European Commission Panel of Participants,

Olivier MURON

FRANCE TELECOM
olivier.muron@francetelecom.fr
+33 1 44 44 54 89