EuroDIG Wiki:About

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About EuroDIG

The Pan-European dialogue on Internet governance (EuroDIG) is an open platform for informal and inclusive discussion and exchange on public policy issues related to Internet Governance (IG) between stakeholders from all over Europe. It was created in 2008 by a number of key stakeholders representing various European stakeholder groups working in the field of IG. EuroDIG is a network which is open to all European stakeholders that are interested in contributing to an open and interactive discussion on IG issues.

The stakeholders participating in the EuroDIG programme network comprise a considerable number of representatives from civil society, the business sector, the technical and academic community as well as European governments, institutions and organisations including the EU-presidency, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the European Broadcasting Union.

The purpose of EuroDIG is twofold: first to help European stakeholders to exchange their views and best practices on the issues to be discussed at global IGF meetings and to identify common ground which is shared by all European stakeholders as well as highlighting the diversity of experience of the different European stakeholders; second to raise awareness in Europe and among European stakeholders about the relevance of the issues discussed in the IGF context and also to raise awareness of the value of the new multistakeholder discussion format developed by and around the IGF.

Historical Background

In the Tunis Agenda (2005) of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) heads of states decided to invite the UN Secretary General to convene a “Internet Governance Forum” (IGF) for a multistakeholder policy dialogue on Internet issues.

The mandate of the IGF is:

• Discuss public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance in order to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet.
• Facilitate discourse between bodies dealing with different cross-cutting international public policies regarding the Internet and discuss issues that do not fall within the scope of any existing body;
• Interface with appropriate inter-governmental organizations and other institutions on matters under their purview;
• Facilitate the exchange of information and best practices, and in this regard make full use of the expertise of the academic, scientific and technical communities;
• Advise all stakeholders in proposing ways and means to accelerate the availability and affordability of the Internet in the developing world;
• Strengthen and enhance the engagement of stakeholders in existing and/or future Internet governance mechanisms, particularly those from developing countries;
• Identify emerging issues, liing them to the attention of the relevant bodies and the general public, and, where appropriate, make recommendations;
• Contribute to capacity building for Internet governance in developing countries, drawing fully on local sources of knowledge and expertise;
• Promote and assess, on an ongoing basis, the embodiment of WSIS principles in Internet governance processes;
• Discuss, inter alia, issues relating to critical Internet resources;
• Help to find solutions to the issues arising from the use and misuse of the Internet, of particular concern to everyday users;

All eight IGF conferences (Athens 2006, Rio de Janeiro 2007, Hyderabat 2008, Sharm el Sheikh 2009, Vilnius 2010, Nairobi 2011, Baku 2012 and Bali 2013) demonstrated the need and usefulness of the creation of innovative discussion platform which allow various stakeholders to contribute to a global bottom up policy development process on Internet issues. The five main subjects of the IGF agenda, as agreed by the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), are access, openness, diversity, security and critical Internet resources.The five global Internet issues are also important on the national and regional level. European stakeholders, including European institutions like the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, supported the idea, to launch a “European Dialogue on Internet Governance” (EuroDIG) to enable European governments, parliaments, organizations, private sector and civil society groups, the technical and academic community etc. to contribute to Internet Governance policy development in Europe and to bring European experiences to the global IGF-debate.