Hi,
I also think that if adopted, this proposal would preclude an inter-RIR transfer market in that the "needs test" is required in the other regions, and that would mean that the RIPE region policies would not be "compatible" as called for in the other regions transfer policies.
In other words, does 2013-03 preclude 2012-02 (if adopted) from being effective?
Yes and no - it depends on the policy in effect in the other region space is being transferred to or from. I'm not intimately familiar with those, but I *believe* that ARIN would be incompatible
Voluntary evaluation of need? It would be a service from the NCC. Something like: you don't need to prove need for the NCC, but if you want advice/evaluation the NCC will assist you and perform the needs based analysis. The NCC has a lot of expertise in this area. Even when showing/documenting need is not required anymore that knowledge could benefit LIRs. It could be useful for new LIRs that need a bit of guidance when assigning addresses to customers. And the NCC doing a "needs test" might make ARIN happy when doing transfers. (I just know that John will reply to this statement ;-) Cheers, Sander