The second EuroDIG was held at the EBU Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, on 14-15 September 2009, and was attended by around 200 participants from all stakeholder groups and regions in Europe. It was co-organized by the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) with the support of the Council of Europe. The six workshops and four plenary sessions were organized by open networks of interested European stakeholders. More information on the sessions and its organizers can be found on www.eurodig.org.

Compared to the first EuroDIG of 2008, several steps had been taken for EuroDIG 2009 to enhance the participation of relevant stakeholders in the event: At the opening, a parliamentary roundtable was organized with representatives from the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and of national parliaments from EU member states and non EU member states. A number of youth representatives were invited to participate in the discussions.[1] An Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme was conducted prior to EuroDIG with a priority for stakeholders from Central and Southern European Countries. This programme included six months of teaching and research activities, participation of the best students at the EuroDIG event and a feedback loop through reports back to the programme.[2] Remote participation was provided through a combination of a streaming within the EuroDIG web and the informal discussions and social reporting performed by participants through tweets, social network and wiki reports (including individual reports in several European languages[3]).

The participants at EuroDIG 2009 expressed their view that EuroDIG should continue to be the platform open to all European stakeholders for discussing public policy issues related to Internet governance and should be considered the future European IGF. A number of messages emerged from EuroDIG 2009 of which the key ones can be summarised as follows:

HUMAN RIGHTS and the rule of law were considered to be fundamental issues in Internet governance with attention given to how best to implement and consolidate existing human rights standards in this context. The public value of the Internet as an infrastructure on which citizens increasingly rely for their social, economic and political development was highlighted as well as governments’ key responsibilities in guaranteeing their citizen’s rights and freedoms online.

THE INTERNET and Internet services should be accessible to all and be stable and well-functioning. All regulation should be people-centred and use innovative approaches, taking into account the respective roles of all stakeholders.

MORE MEDIA EDUCATION to empower users was considered essential, and national government initiatives to increase media education need to be implemented. Here, it was stressed that the Council of Europe should take a leadership role.

EUROPEAN STAKEHOLDERS should also support stakeholders from the developing world in successfully facing the challenges brought about by the Internet and support their participating in its governance.

Read the complete message here

[2] This was done through the DiploFoundation’s European Capacity Development Programme in Internet Governance (ECDIG) sponsored by the Swiss government. For more information see: http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig/display.asp?Topic=news-more/EuroDig

[3] Wiki presenting personal summaries, views and impressions of some participants is available at: http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig/ eurodig09.