EU internet governance plan gains US support

[Guest]

http://euobserver.com/9/20326

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With only a day left for the UN world summit on information to kick off in Tunis, a European Union compromise proposal on how to govern the internet is gaining international support, Brussels says.

Roughly 15,000 delegates and more than 50 heads of state are due to attend the three-day long summit in the Tunisian capital on Wednesday (16 November), with the ambition of ending five years of negotiations on the high stakes topic.

"Our proposal has been applauded by countries like the US and Saudi-Arabia," a European Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday, hinting that a final agreement might be in sight.

The EU proposal aims at internationalising the governance of the internet, finding a formula under which governments share control over issues like spam, cyber crime and world wide access, without setting up new bureaucratic institutions.

Up until now the world wide web has been governed by the California-based organisation Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, (Icann), which has the power to suspend whole countries' internet services at will.



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[Christian Soldier]

Re: EU internet governance plan gains US support

Here's an analogy. At work, we have a myriad of Freedom 55ers (long time employees yearning for retirement) who are coasting along doing as least work as possible and counting the hours and days until they're finally let out to pasture. For those young whipper snappers in our company who are full of vim and vigor, it's excruciating to see these long-in-the-tooth (basically deadwood) struggle each day until that day of liberty finally dawns. The younger employees are energetic and contribute with new ideas. They buzz about producing work like a saw mill that just started up. It's all go, go, go!

The USA is a stagnant nation compared to the emerging EU Superstate. When was the last time the USA added a state? Well, the EU has been enlarged from 6 to 10 to 25 and still growing. It constitutes the biggest portion of the REVIVED Roman Empire. There's a buzz over there in Europe. The very first EU Constitution is set to be established. The new 7-year EU budget will contain chocks of surprises. The EU purposes to further expand eastward and southward. It eventually wants to control the world.

It's no surprise then that the EU has proposed internationalizing the Internet since the EU will control the Internet eventually. The tired dog (the USA) doesn't mind the EU taking the initiative once again. The USA has consigned itself to a lesser role in the world scene.

[Neggy]

Re: EU internet governance plan gains US support

IMHO....I do not think the mere addition of states by itself is somehow an indicator of economic vitality and innovation. The only truly dynamic and growing economies in EU are those from the newly minted states that are added after the cold war was won - e.g. Poland, Bulgaria, Czech, etc., or those that still embrace some measure of free market capitilism. These economies are growing because much like the US, they are not burdened with the financial penalties associated with stagnant socialistic philosophies and they are going through major restructuring of the underlying industy infrastructure and business models to align with this new free market model. Many still are struggling with unemployment in the high single to low double digits.

France, Germany - many of the "old guard" of Europe have stagnant, entitlement burdened economies with low economic growth, high degrees of unemployment (>10-15% in many cases) and dissatisfaction. I would argue that there is not much "innovation" occuring in these state controlled economies. (Mandated 35 hour work weeks, life time employment guarantees, 6 week gauranteed annual vacations, etc.)

The US is still wailing along at a 4% annual growth rate in GDP, despite the burdens of the war inspired debt and some drunken sailor spending (which I hope they will soon get under control) - and we haven't added any states in over 50 years. Unemployment is very low (less than half of most EU countries). Why is that?

It's because of the philosophies and freedoms that still drive the greatest innovation engine in the world - the US economy.

If you read ALL the in depth articles on this topic, the US , including the Congress, do NOT want to relinquish control of this important engine of commerce and make it subject to the red- tape beauracracy of an international organization. The fear being - it will subject the free market benefits of the Internet engine to political and social adaptations and agreements that have nothing to do with free market economics.

I wish there was a way to US could stand stronger on this issue - much of the pressure to take control out of the hands of the US has to do with the politics associated with repressive regimes like China, Iran, and Saudia Arabia wanting to control what their people can see and read - and nothing to do with a better system for managing the Internet.