Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Internet governance is not a regulation but a way in which the Internet community coordinates the work of the network. This was the general opinion of the participants in the First Regional Forum on Internet Governance in South East Europe (SEEDIG), held today in Sofia as a preliminary event to the 8th European Dialogue on Internet Governance. The discussions involved over 100 representatives of governments, business, civil society and research organizations from South East Europe.

Hosting the first event of its kind in the region is not only a challenge but also a responsibility, said at the opening today the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Valery Borissov. He added that the Forum emphasizes the specificity of Southeast Europe on various aspects of the Internet - accessibility and security, social policies and legislative norms, relationships between the public and private sectors, freedom of expression and protection of human rights.

The dialogue on these issues should be pursued both at global and national level, said Deputy Minister Valery Borissov. According to him, the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications discusses national issues of internet governance with the business, NGOs and academia. A good example of cooperation is the application for registration of a national domain in Cyrillic. Immediately after obtaining the positive response a preparatory procedure for the selection of a candidate to administer the new Internet names will be launched, said Valery Borissov.

The organizer of the forum is Unicart and the Ministry of Transport and Communications is an institutional partner. Representatives of the Organization for Internet names and addresses (ICANN), the European Commission, Council of Europe, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, and others took part in today’s event.

The results of today's regional talks will be presented tomorrow at the broader European format of the dialogue on the future of Internet governance, where around 400 people from across Europe are expected to participate.