Council Resolution of 3 October 2000 on the organisation and management of the Internet
Date: 2000-10-03
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: advisory committee (EU), computer network, information network, interactive network, management

14.10.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 293/3

COUNCIL RESOLUTION

of 3 October 2000

on the organisation and management of the Internet

(2000/C 293/02)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

sation (WIPO) and the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU).

1. RECALLING:

3. NOTES:

(cid:151) the

final declaration of

the European Ministerial
Conference held in Bonn (6 to 8 July 1997) referring
in praticular
to the creation of an (cid:145)internationally
recognised and transparent system of management of
the
(cid:145)adequate
system(cid:146)
European representation(cid:146),

comprising

domain

name

(cid:151) the EU-US joint statement on electronic commerce (5
December 1997) emphasising in particular that the role
and
of government was
predictable
ensure
adequate protection of public interest objectives such
as privacy,
intellectual property rights, prevention of
fraud, consumer protection and public safety(cid:146),

to (cid:145)provide
. . .

consistent
to

framework,

legal

and

a

(cid:151) that greater consideration for public policies and the
pursuit of globalisation of the management of Internet
addresses and domain names are key objectives for the
European Union,

(cid:151) the

importance of

the development of

electronic
commerce, which will require efficient and transparent
the resources represented by domain
management of
names and Internet protocol (IP) addresses, in particular
through the deployment of
the next generation of
addresses using the IPv6 standard.

2. WELCOMES:

(cid:151) the Commission communication of 11 April 2000 on
the organisation and management of the Internet,

(cid:151) the concerted work already done by the Member States
and the Commission in that context and the active
involvement of Internet professionals and professionals
from Europe’s private sector in the setting-up of the
Internet corporation for assigned names and numbers
(ICANN),

(cid:151) the

fact

that

ICANN’s Governmental Advisory
Committee (GAC) has authorised account to be taken
of public policy goals and has defined a clear and
balanced system for country code top-level domain
names (ccTLD),

(cid:151) that a number of significant advances have been made
on the management of addresses and domain names,
ICANN’s Board of
such as
Directors, generating competition at
the
the level of
registrars, setting up dispute resolution machinery for
generic top-level domain names (gTLDs),

the global make-up of

(cid:151) that the reform of Internet management is nonetheless
still going through a transitional phase, and consequently
the objectives which the European Union has set itself
on domain name management cannot be regarded as
having been achieved,

(cid:151) that a number of

important

issues currently remain

unresolved, in particular:

(cid:151) the nature of, and arrangements for, balanced and
ICANN’s activities by

equal oversight of some of
public authorities,

(cid:151) the

rules

to govern generic domains, notably
database ownership and separation of registries’ and
registrars’ activities,

(cid:151) the

redelegation of

manager
concerned,

at

the

certain ccTLDs
of

to another
the Government

request

(cid:151) regarding the relationships between the registries
established in the Community with their public auth-
orities on the one hand and with ICANN on the
other hand,

(cid:151) the transfer of the management of the root server
system from the US Department of Commerce to
ICANN, under appropriate international supervision
by public authorities,

(cid:151) that those issues need to be addressed with due regard
for both the interests of the international community as
a whole and the public policy challenges involved,
particularly
competition, personal data
protection and respect for intellectual property rights.

regards

as

4. ENCOURAGES:

(cid:151) the work undertaken in the relevant international organi-
sations, notably the World Intellectual Property Organi-

(cid:151) the implementation of

the principles adopted by the

GAC,

C 293/4

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

14.10.2000

(cid:151) WIPO to continue its work on the recognition of rights
and the use of names in the domain name system.
Furthermore WIPO is encouraged to develop,
for the
assistance of ccTLD administrators, voluntary guidelines
for practices and policies to curb abusive and bad faith
registration of protected names, and resolve related
disputes,

(cid:151) the ITU to continue to take an active part in the inter-
national discussions and initiatives on the organisation
and management of the Internet, especially on issues
related to Internet addresses and protocols.

5. RESOLVES TO INVITE THE MEMBER STATES:

(cid:151) to consult each other with a view to establishing
common European positions on the subject in the inter-
national bodies concerned and to securing genuine
globalisation of Internet management,

(cid:151) to take due account of the policy objectives listed by the
the Community’s

communication

Commission

in

policies on the information society and on research
and development,

(cid:151) to implement,

in accordance with national provisions,
the principles adopted by the GAC on domain name
management.

6. RESOLVES TO INSTRUCT THE COMMISSION:

(cid:151) to encourage the coordination of policies on Internet
management,
in particular by defining an appropriate
framework to organise and structure activities in this
area,

(cid:151) to continue its efforts, in consultation with the Member
States,
Internet
to achieve genuine globalisation of
management with due regard for the imperatives of
both public policies and international agreements,

(cid:151) to set up a European network bringing together the
scientific, technical and legal skills that currently exist
in the Member States with regard to domain name,
address and Internet protocol management.