[EURO-Discuss] Towards EURALO: A Proposed Roadmap

[Nick Ashton-Hart]

Hello everyone!

I hope you have had a great Festive break and New Years celebrations.

As so many regions are accelerating their work towards forming RALOs,  
an effort which has sped up in many regions following the launch of  
LACRALO in Sao Paulo, I thought I would make a few comments about how  
we could move forward in Europe.

Firstly, On the incorporation of a legal entity for EURALO:

As you all know, it has proven somewhat contentious to agree the  
country of incorporation. During the public forum in Sao Paulo, Paul  
Twomey, ICANN CEO, may have made this issue slightly easier to  
resolve by the following statement:

...I WOULD JUST MAKE ONE OTHER OBSERVATION ON THE ONE LANGUAGE ISSUE.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT -- AND I THINK THIS IS TRUE IN MANY  
INTERNATIONAL ENTITIES.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE MAINTAIN A SINGLE LANGUAGE FOR BUSINESS.
THAT SORT OF FOR THE ACTUAL DOING OF BUSINESS AND FOR THE CONDUCTING  
OF LEGAL AFFAIRS, IT IS ACTUALLY VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE DO THAT IN  
ONE LANGUAGE.
THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE CAN'T TRANSLATE DOCUMENTS.
BUT THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE -- THE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS SHOULD BE IN THAT  
ONE LANGUAGE...

This is excerpted from the scribe of the session on Thursday - you  
can see the whole notes of the session at: http://sp.icann.org/ 
transcript/7dec06/public-forum

It had already been the subject of consensus that the country of  
incorporation would be determined by:

1) legal documents could be filed in English
2) The cost of incorporation is low
3) The cost of operating the company is low

There are only two countries we had explored incorporating in which  
allow ALL legal documents to be filed in English: The United Kingdom,  
and Switzerland.

As a result, these are the two countries we must choose between.

Secondly, on completing work on the Bylaws:

There are still open points on the Bylaws as you know. Some of these  
can likely be resolved via online debate and discussion, but some of  
them may require a face-to-face discussion.

Thirdly, the ALS community needs to agree on the contents of a  
Memorandum of Understanding

As previously stated, I will produce a draft text incorporating the  
ideas from Africa, Latin America/Caribbean Islands, and Asia-Pacific,  
for review; this should be done in the next 10 days or so at most.

Proposed Process to conclude work:

What I suggested on the ALAC monthly teleconference yesterday was  
that we should borrow from the LAC region's experience on how to  
conclude these discussions. The model they used was as follows:

1) Work in advance had produced an MoU and Operating Principles which  
had a high degree of consensus, with only a few areas which were  
still the subject of discussion.

2) Arrangements were made for the ALS community to come to the ICANN  
International Meeting in Sao Paulo and meet for several hours to  
conclude work, over three separate sessions. ICANN staff prepared  
draft agendas and put forward proposals for discussion in relation to  
the remaining open areas, with the participants completely free to go  
in other directions with respect to those points, but with the staff  
proposals as a place to start

3) Agreement was reached on a text, which was reviewed onsite by the  
ICANN General Counsel's office to make sure that there were no  
problems with the MoU in that respect. After that was concluded, the  
regional ALS representatives elected the two representatives from the  
region to the ALAC.

4) A signing ceremony involving the press, and Vint Cerf and Paul  
Twomey, were conducted in the plenary hall, and a resolution of the  
board was adopted accepting the MoU subject to completion of  a  
public comment period.

If the region is willing, we can proceed on this basis, with the  
Lisbon ICANN meeting scheduled for 26-30 March 2007 as the venue for  
the F2F meetings(http://www.icann.org/meetings/lisbon/ ). Part of the  
benefit of this approach is it also allows the ALS community to  
attend the ICANN international meeting and engage with other  
constituencies and policy development discussions.

Of course your thoughts are much appreciated.
-- 
Regards,

Nick Ashton-Hart
PO Box 32160
London N4 2XY
United Kingdom
Main Tel: +44 (20) 8800-1011]
USA Tel: +1 (202) 657-5460
Fax: +44 (20) 7681-3135
mobile: +44 (7774) 932798
email: nashton at consensus.pro
Win IM: ashtonhart at hotmail.com / AIM/iSight: nashtonhart at mac.com /  
Skype: nashtonhart
Online Bio:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashtonhart





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