Meeting Report
On Tuesday, 3 March 2026, the RIPE NCC held its annual European Roundtable Meeting, bringing together 60 participants that included government representatives, regulators and members of the technical community in Brussels.
The meeting, held under the Chatham House Rule, began with remarks reflecting on the complex geopolitical context in which the WSIS+20 negotiations took place and outlining the EU’s digital diplomacy efforts in shaping positive outcomes. Despite growing polarisation in UN forums, the final WSIS+20 Outcome Document, endorsed by the UN General Assembly, reaffirms a shared commitment to a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information society that is anchored in multistakeholder cooperation and human rights.
Our first panel examined the implementation of the WSIS+20 Outcome Document. While all speakers agreed about the need to implement the WSIS outcomes and the Global Digital Compact (GDC) in a coherent way, they underlined the importance of inter-agency coordination in this regard. They commented on the role of the United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS), which will bring together all relevant UN bodies and work on refining the modalities of implementation. Discussions on financing and the elaboration of implementation roadmaps and monitoring indicators should be tackled with a view to avoid duplication and effectively link the WSIS Action Lines to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets and GDC commitments. These roadmaps should be presented to the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) in 2027. A multistakeholder consultation group is planned to allow for stakeholders to share their views and recommendations. Now established as a permanent UN body, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will also play a role in bringing key stakeholders together and tracking progress over time. As the final outcome has settled on establishing a governmental dialogue within the IGF, the question of precisely how this will be operationalised remains and should be determined by implementation. Public policy representatives encouraged the technical community to contribute to this effort by sharing their expertise and advising on the best approach to how effective Internet technical coordination and policymaking can intersect.
The second session of the event looked into the RIPE NCC’s current and future priorities as part of its next five-year strategy. This includes sustaining efforts to build operational resilience, notably through accuracy of Registry data and information security, as well as safeguarding its neutrality in the face of a fast-changing geopolitical and regulatory environment. Participants also gained insight into the ongoing review of the ‘Governance Document for the Recognition, Operation, and Derecognition of Regional Internet Registries’ and the RIPE NCC’s contribution to the SDGs.
The event continued with a panel on open Internet standards, where speakers explored the roles of the organisations and individuals involved in the process of developing and deploying them. They discussed some key differences but also identified commonalities with regard to the rules of engagement, participation mechanisms and the values, interests and principles driving standardisation processes and communities. Those involved in bodies and groups such as the RIPE community, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) or at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) tend to operate under different mandates, but speakers agreed on the importance of human connections and early engagement. All supported collaborative frameworks and direct engagement, not just to better coordinate across various bodies, but also to address policy needs and ensure standards focus on tackling real-life business cases. Despite divergences pertaining to their different mandates and scopes of work, participants converged on the need for the public sector to lead by example. Some speakers invited policymakers to get involved and continue supporting community-led and bottom-up processes to address complex challenges, taking into account technical, business and societal aspects. Finally, a strong consensus emerged around the idea that policymakers should support open standards at a time when technological change is accelerating and the principles of the global and open Internet are being challenged.