11 March, 2016

Global internet: ETNO welcomes ICANN 55 decisions

ETNO, the Association representing Europe’s leading telecom operators, welcomes the decisions taken last night in Marrakesh by the Board of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

The approval of the accountability proposal is an important milestone towards improving the governance of the internet and the management of domain names. Thanks to this decision, the ICANN Board will refer the proposal to the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration), the competent agency of the United States Department of Commerce to  finalise the transition of IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) to the international community by the end of September 2016. ICANN is therefore a step closer to building an open, independent and inclusive multi-stakeholder governance model of the internet.

Lise Fuhr, Director General of ETNO, said: “The internet and the digital ecosystem are global. Yesterday’s decisions recognise the role of the internet community and of stakeholders in the governance of the internet. The work of the accountability group has been an excellent experience of joint effort by all stakeholders to improve internet governance, with an open and cooperative spirit. We should continue building on this positive experience to empower the future work on the transition. We thank the outgoing CEO of ICANN Fadi Chehadé for his extraordinary efforts and look forward to working with the incoming CEO, Göran Marby”.

Background information

ETNO has been consistently supporting the internationalisation of ICANN’s IANA functions and an open, inclusive multi-stakeholder governance model.

Lise Fuhr, ETNO’s Director General, is involved since her prior role in this process. As a Co-Chair of the Cross Community Working Group for the IANA Stewardship Transition, in the coming months she will continue working on the implementation of the transition until it is completed.

ETNO’s Internet Governance Working Group and its Chair Christoph Steck are actively participating into the stakeholders’ work-streams. ETNO is also active in the broader internet governance debate and Christoph Steck is an elected private sector representative to the NetMundial Initiative's Multi-Stakeholder Coordination Committee and Co-chair of Internet Society' s Organizational Members Advisory Committee (OMAC).