[EURO-Discuss] Towards EURALO: A Proposed Roadmap

Thu Jan 11 09:20:19 EST 2007

Dear Nick

thanks for pushing things forward. Still ten weeks to go to Lisbon but time is running. 

First I agree fully with Paul Twomey statement with the "one language principle" with regard to official texts of subisdary bodies. However as I was told by some lawyers here in germany, it would not be a problem to have all the documentation and correspndence in English in case the EU-RALO is incorporated in germany. And again costs are low, procedures are very lightweight and felxible and there are some people - in form of recognized ALS - in Germany who can take care of this. Much easier than UK.

Second: Text of MOU and Bylaws should be cleared as qwucik as possible. I do not see any big problems after the various meetings we had in Atehens and SP. However with reagrd to voting rights I think we need a final solution which would allow individuals to have full access to all procedures, including voting rights. 

Thirs: with regard to the European vacancy in the ALAC, I propose to look towards Eastern Europe, preferably a non-EU member. This would give the European group in the ALAC more representativeness and legitimacy and would be also a signal to the "forgotten countries". With "forgotten countries" I mean at large communities in Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbjdjan, Moldova, Georgia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia etc. which work under complicated conditions, fighting for freedom of expression in the Internet, doing very often a great job to help small communities to find a way into cyberspace. To strengthen these people and to bring them closer to the ICANN community would be an important signal. So far we have with Italy and germany two strong EU members represented in the ALAC, the third seat shpuld be reserved for somebody from the edges. 

Best wishes

wolfgang

________________________________

Von: euro-discuss-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org im Auftrag von Nick Ashton-Hart
Gesendet: Do 11.01.2007 09:07
An: euro-discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org
Cc: euro-staff at atlarge-lists.icann.org
Betreff: [EURO-Discuss] Towards EURALO: A Proposed Roadmap

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 f rward 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 TH T 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 represe tatives 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/ ). Pa t 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
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