Proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) perspectives
Dear members and colleagues, I would like to share a couple of recent blog posts on the proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) that you may find of interest: Internet Society: “Fair Share and the Digital Networks Act (DNA): Three Concerns” https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2026/01/fair-share-and-the-digital-netw... <> Konstantinos Komaitis: “The Draft Digital Networks Act (DNA): A Critique” https://www.komaitis.org/write-share-ignite/the-draft-digital-networks-act-d... <> Thoughts, reactions or additional perspectives are very welcome. best Desiree — RIPE Coop WG Co-Chair
The "Fair Share" zombie has been dusted off again by Deutsche Telekom and the other former monopolists in Europe, and whispered into the minds of the EU Commission by well-paid lobbyists at canapé receptions. Am I the only one annoyed by these mechanisms? I am firmly convinced that the RIPE NCC as an organization and the RIPE community must finally become significantly more politically active and engage in more lobbying, because the mechanisms are what they are. If you only concern yourself with IPv6 address allocation schemes, routing policies, and open-source repositories with cool code (which I much prefer), then you shouldn't be surprised when the EU Commission ignores you as an organization and regularly makes terrible decisions. Someone has to go to those canapé receptions... Thank u for sharing Desiree cu Tahar Schaa Tahar.Schaa@Neuland-Homeland.de Von: Desiree Miloshevic <miloshevic@gmail.com> Gesendet: Freitag, 23. Januar 2026 15:07 An: Cooperation WG <cooperation-wg@ripe.net> Betreff: [cooperation-wg] Proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) perspectives Dear members and colleagues, I would like to share a couple of recent blog posts on the proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) that you may find of interest: * Internet Society: “Fair Share and the Digital Networks Act (DNA): Three Concerns” https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2026/01/fair-share-and-the-digital-netw... * Konstantinos Komaitis: “The Draft Digital Networks Act (DNA): A Critique” https://www.komaitis.org/write-share-ignite/the-draft-digital-networks-act-d... Thoughts, reactions or additional perspectives are very welcome. best Desiree — RIPE Coop WG Co-Chair
On 23/01/2026 10:11 pm, Tahar Schaa wrote:
I am firmly convinced that the RIPE NCC as an organization and the RIPE community must finally become significantly more politically active and engage in more lobbying, because the mechanisms are what they are.
If you only concern yourself with IPv6 address allocation schemes, routing policies, and open-source repositories with cool code (which I much prefer), then you shouldn't be surprised when the EU Commission ignores you as an organization and regularly makes terrible decisions.
Someone has to go to those canapé receptions...
Seems RIPE NCC needs to get better at promoting their work on interaction with the EU. They do go to some of those canapé receptions, and even organize some of their own, such as the annual Government Roundtable in Brussels, where the chairs of this WG also try to attend. But yes, this is very much what this WG is all about. Julf
Hello Tahar et al., and thanks Desiree for bringing this to the list. While what I will say is well understood by many in the community, it's still helpful to keep in mind the dual role the RIPE NCC plays, and the boundaries that are necessary for those roles to function effectively. The RIPE NCC has a responsibility to support and defend Internet technical coordination: to explain how the Internet’s core works technically, why open standards and neutral coordination and registration of Internet Number Resources matter, and why global interoperability is a prerequisite for innovation, competition, and sustainable development. This includes engagement with IGOs, governments, and regulators across our service, as well as institutions at EU and national level, and contributing technical expertise and operational reality to policy discussions. For those who are interested, the positions and submissions the RIPE NCC has made to UN, EU, and broader Internet governance processes are publicly available on the RIPE NCC website. https://www.ripe.net/community/internet-governance/multi-stakeholder-engagem... At the same time, the RIPE NCC also serves as the secretariat to the RIPE community. In that role, it does not act as a political actor or lobby on behalf of the community. Instead, it enables bottom-up, community-led processes, provides factual and technical input, and supports the outcomes that the community itself develops through its Working Groups. On “Fair Share” specifically, we’ve seen a strong example of this community-led approach already: this Working Group convened a small task team (through an open call) that produced a substantive response to the European Commission’s consultation (May 2023). That piece of work came directly out of the WG, drawing on community expertise, and the RIPE NCC supported the process in its secretariat role. https://www.ripe.net/media/documents/RIPE_Cooperation_Working_Group_Small_Ta... This is why I agree with Julf's point: this Working Group is precisely the right place for the community to come together, assess policy developments like “Fair Share”, and articulate shared concerns or principles grounded in technical and operational realities. When the community develops a common position, the RIPE NCC can fully support that work in its role as secretariat including by helping ensure those perspectives are understood in relevant policy forums. The RIPE NCC can also offer the co-chairs the option to organize open houses or similar online sessions on these topics as an extension to the discussion on the mailing list and at the RIPE meetings, should that be useful for broadening participation and engagement across the community. https://www.ripe.net/meetings/open-house/ Regards Hisham Ibrahim On Sun, 25 Jan 2026 at 12:47, Johan Helsingius via cooperation-wg < cooperation-wg@ripe.net> wrote:
On 23/01/2026 10:11 pm, Tahar Schaa wrote:
I am firmly convinced that the RIPE NCC as an organization and the RIPE community must finally become significantly more politically active and engage in more lobbying, because the mechanisms are what they are.
If you only concern yourself with IPv6 address allocation schemes, routing policies, and open-source repositories with cool code (which I much prefer), then you shouldn't be surprised when the EU Commission ignores you as an organization and regularly makes terrible decisions.
Someone has to go to those canapé receptions...
Seems RIPE NCC needs to get better at promoting their work on interaction with the EU. They do go to some of those canapé receptions, and even organize some of their own, such as the annual Government Roundtable in Brussels, where the chairs of this WG also try to attend.
But yes, this is very much what this WG is all about.
Julf
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Dear colleagues BEREC published its preliminary assessment of the DNA proposal -- see here: https://www.berec.europa.eu/en/news/press-releases/berec-provides-early-asse... BEREC will work on a deeper assessment, which should be published around June. This could be a good timing to organise a second Open House on the topic. All best, Romain On Fri, 30 Jan 2026 at 07:39, Hisham Ibrahim <HMI@ripe.net> wrote:
Hello Tahar et al., and thanks Desiree for bringing this to the list.
While what I will say is well understood by many in the community, it's still helpful to keep in mind the dual role the RIPE NCC plays, and the boundaries that are necessary for those roles to function effectively.
The RIPE NCC has a responsibility to support and defend Internet technical coordination: to explain how the Internet’s core works technically, why open standards and neutral coordination and registration of Internet Number Resources matter, and why global interoperability is a prerequisite for innovation, competition, and sustainable development. This includes engagement with IGOs, governments, and regulators across our service, as well as institutions at EU and national level, and contributing technical expertise and operational reality to policy discussions.
For those who are interested, the positions and submissions the RIPE NCC has made to UN, EU, and broader Internet governance processes are publicly available on the RIPE NCC website.
https://www.ripe.net/community/internet-governance/multi-stakeholder-engagem...
At the same time, the RIPE NCC also serves as the secretariat to the RIPE community. In that role, it does not act as a political actor or lobby on behalf of the community. Instead, it enables bottom-up, community-led processes, provides factual and technical input, and supports the outcomes that the community itself develops through its Working Groups.
On “Fair Share” specifically, we’ve seen a strong example of this community-led approach already: this Working Group convened a small task team (through an open call) that produced a substantive response to the European Commission’s consultation (May 2023). That piece of work came directly out of the WG, drawing on community expertise, and the RIPE NCC supported the process in its secretariat role.
https://www.ripe.net/media/documents/RIPE_Cooperation_Working_Group_Small_Ta...
This is why I agree with Julf's point: this Working Group is precisely the right place for the community to come together, assess policy developments like “Fair Share”, and articulate shared concerns or principles grounded in technical and operational realities. When the community develops a common position, the RIPE NCC can fully support that work in its role as secretariat including by helping ensure those perspectives are understood in relevant policy forums.
The RIPE NCC can also offer the co-chairs the option to organize open houses or similar online sessions on these topics as an extension to the discussion on the mailing list and at the RIPE meetings, should that be useful for broadening participation and engagement across the community.
https://www.ripe.net/meetings/open-house/
Regards
Hisham Ibrahim
On Sun, 25 Jan 2026 at 12:47, Johan Helsingius via cooperation-wg < cooperation-wg@ripe.net> wrote:
On 23/01/2026 10:11 pm, Tahar Schaa wrote:
I am firmly convinced that the RIPE NCC as an organization and the RIPE community must finally become significantly more politically active and engage in more lobbying, because the mechanisms are what they are.
If you only concern yourself with IPv6 address allocation schemes, routing policies, and open-source repositories with cool code (which I much prefer), then you shouldn't be surprised when the EU Commission ignores you as an organization and regularly makes terrible decisions.
Someone has to go to those canapé receptions...
Seems RIPE NCC needs to get better at promoting their work on interaction with the EU. They do go to some of those canapé receptions, and even organize some of their own, such as the annual Government Roundtable in Brussels, where the chairs of this WG also try to attend.
But yes, this is very much what this WG is all about.
Julf
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Will RIPE be preparing a submission on the IP community's take on the Commission's policy approach? Given RIPE NCC covers a larger geographical and political and technical community than the EU Commission. ? Romain Bosc <rbosc@ripe.net> writes:
Dear colleagues
BEREC published its preliminary assessment of the DNA proposal -- see here: https://www.berec.europa.eu/en/news/press-releases/berec-provides-early-asse...
BEREC will work on a deeper assessment, which should be published around June.
This could be a good timing to organise a second Open House on the topic.
All best, Romain
On Fri, 30 Jan 2026 at 07:39, Hisham Ibrahim <HMI@ripe.net> wrote:
Hello Tahar et al., and thanks Desiree for bringing this to the list.
While what I will say is well understood by many in the community, it's still helpful to keep in mind the dual role the RIPE NCC plays, and the boundaries that are necessary for those roles to function effectively.
The RIPE NCC has a responsibility to support and defend Internet technical coordination: to explain how the Internet’s core works technically, why open standards and neutral coordination and registration of Internet Number Resources matter, and why global interoperability is a prerequisite for innovation, competition, and sustainable development. This includes engagement with IGOs, governments, and regulators across our service, as well as institutions at EU and national level, and contributing technical expertise and operational reality to policy discussions.
For those who are interested, the positions and submissions the RIPE NCC has made to UN, EU, and broader Internet governance processes are publicly available on the RIPE NCC website.
https://www.ripe.net/community/internet-governance/multi-stakeholder-engagem...
At the same time, the RIPE NCC also serves as the secretariat to the RIPE community. In that role, it does not act as a political actor or lobby on behalf of the community. Instead, it enables bottom-up, community-led processes, provides factual and technical input, and supports the outcomes that the community itself develops through its Working Groups.
On “Fair Share” specifically, we’ve seen a strong example of this community-led approach already: this Working Group convened a small task team (through an open call) that produced a substantive response to the European Commission’s consultation (May 2023). That piece of work came directly out of the WG, drawing on community expertise, and the RIPE NCC supported the process in its secretariat role.
https://www.ripe.net/media/documents/RIPE_Cooperation_Working_Group_Small_Ta...
This is why I agree with Julf's point: this Working Group is precisely the right place for the community to come together, assess policy developments like “Fair Share”, and articulate shared concerns or principles grounded in technical and operational realities. When the community develops a common position, the RIPE NCC can fully support that work in its role as secretariat including by helping ensure those perspectives are understood in relevant policy forums.
The RIPE NCC can also offer the co-chairs the option to organize open houses or similar online sessions on these topics as an extension to the discussion on the mailing list and at the RIPE meetings, should that be useful for broadening participation and engagement across the community.
https://www.ripe.net/meetings/open-house/
Regards
Hisham Ibrahim
On Sun, 25 Jan 2026 at 12:47, Johan Helsingius via cooperation-wg <cooperation-wg@ripe.net> wrote:
On 23/01/2026 10:11 pm, Tahar Schaa wrote:
I am firmly convinced that the RIPE NCC as an organization and the RIPE community must finally become significantly more politically active and engage in more lobbying, because the mechanisms are what they are.
If you only concern yourself with IPv6 address allocation schemes, routing policies, and open-source repositories with cool code (which I much prefer), then you shouldn't be surprised when the EU Commission ignores you as an organization and regularly makes terrible decisions.
Someone has to go to those canapé receptions...
Seems RIPE NCC needs to get better at promoting their work on interaction with the EU. They do go to some of those canapé receptions, and even organize some of their own, such as the annual Government Roundtable in Brussels, where the chairs of this WG also try to attend.
But yes, this is very much what this WG is all about.
Julf
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-- Christian de Larrinaga
participants (6)
-
Christian de Larrinaga -
Desiree Miloshevic -
Hisham Ibrahim -
Johan Helsingius -
Romain Bosc -
Tahar Schaa