From Riyadh – to Strasbourg – and Lillestrøm
(IGF – EuroDIG – IGF)
Reflections by Sandra Hoferichter, Secretary General, EuroDIG
Before the EuroDIG Secretariat will enter the summer break, I would like to reflect on 7 months intensive of Internet Governance discussions. After a late in the year IGF in Riyadh, we immediately started building the #EuroDIG2025 agenda feeding in the outcomes of the #IGF2024 and setting the scene for the 2025 Internet Governance discussions in Lillestrøm. It was a unique situation that EuroDIG results could be presented shortly after the meeting finished, including the #YOUthDIG Messages.
WSIS, WSIS and WSIS+20 review
By no surprise the #WSIS20 review was a key focus at both, the EuroDIG but even more during the IGF, whose future mandate will depend on the review process. And WSIS will keep our attention for at least another 6 months.
At #EuroDIG2025, Suela Janina, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Albania to the United Nations, who was appointed by the President of the United Nations General Assembly to lead the negotiations on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) as one of 2 co-facilitators, attended shortly after her appointment and was open to the ideas that emerged from the discussion.
At the #IGF2025 a highlight was the High Level Session, moderated by Ambassador Thomas Schneider, President of the EuroDIG Support Association, where both Co-Facilitators H.E. Mr. Ekitela Lokaale, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kenya to the UN, and H.E. Ms. Suela Janina, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Albania to the UN, assured that the views from stakeholder would be considered in the upcoming consultations.Â
However, the overall IGF agenda featured too much repetition and lacked a focused discussion on the implementation of the WSIS action lines and their outcomes within the IGF processes. Despite the presence of high-profile speakers, some high-level sessions drew sparse attendance, while certain workshops were filled to capacity—highlighting a disconnect between programme and participants interest. While building the IGF programme through a bottom-up evaluation of hundreds of proposals is undoubtedly a challenging task, there is a pressing need to establish mechanisms that ensure a well-balanced agenda with reduced overlaps and redundancies.
Emerging Technologies – how many governance frameworks do we want?
The #EuroDIG2025 programme included also a roundhouse on emerging technologies; not only focusing on AI but also looking forward to technologies that are at our doorstep and that can only be built on an open, unified and robust Internet. Namely we saw sessions on virtual worlds (organised by the European Commission), neurotechnology (organised by the Council of Europe) and quantum technology (organised by a multistakeholder group of actors). When arguing for a governance framework for #Artificial Intelligence as we can hear it everywhere these days, the question arises: Do we want to introduce specific governance frameworks for every future technology that works on the Internet? And what happens when these technologies will marry? It is only a matter of time before user experiences in #VirtualWorlds are driven by advanced #AI, seamlessly interfacing with our nervous systems through #neurotechnology, and increasingly enhanced by the computational and sensing capabilities of #quantum technologies. Do we want to develop different governance frameworks, or can we agree on an overarching approach to address these technologies as it was laid out in the WSIS principles? This debate is yet to be continued.
Parliamentarians, where are you?
At #EuroDIG2025, we also continued the exchange between African and European Parliamentarians that started at #EuroDIG2023 in Tampere and, as such, became part of the IGF Parliamentarian Track. Parliamentarians are a key stakeholder group, but they are only slowly discovering the IGF as the place for global exchange and knowledge transfer. This is unfortunately also the case on the national and regional levels (#NRIs). But here is why they should engage more:
EuroDIG as a regional Forum and all national initiatives (NRIs) are not UN bodies and as such independent, but they are embedded in the WSIS process. The pace of digital transformation is accelerating, yet the promises of inclusivity, trust, and equitable development remain unevenly fulfilled. In this context, one critical question emerges: how can we ensure that the future of global digital cooperation is inclusive, relevant, and rooted in local realities? The answer lies, in part, in the power of regional and national multi-stakeholder dialogues.
The value of national and regional multi-stakeholder dialogues (NRIs)
1. Regions are innovation hubs and early warning systems
Regional and national dialogues are laboratories of innovation and barometers of need. Moreover, they serve as early warning systems, alerting the global community to emerging challenges.
2. Inclusivity through proximity
Regional and national fora are closer to the people. They create more accessible spaces for civil society, youth, SMEs, academia, and underserved communities to engage. Language, cultural relevance, and contextual understanding make participation more meaningful.
The global digital agenda is often dominated by powerful voices, regional dialogues ensure that local perspectives are not lost, but elevated.
3. Building trust and shared ownership
Trust is the currency of cooperation. And trust is built through repeated, respectful, multi-stakeholder engagement – the kind that regional platforms foster.
These dialogues allow actors to move beyond rhetoric and into collaboration, such as:
•   Governments listening to grassroots digital rights groups.
•   Tech companies co-designing solutions with rural communities.
•   Regional organizations harmonizing policies for cross-border digital trade and data governance.
This shared ownership strengthens the legitimacy and sustainability of global outcomes.
4. Bridging global-local gaps in policy
Too often, global frameworks remain disconnected from local implementation realities. Regional processes can act as translators – adapting global norms to local contexts and informing global agendas with grassroots knowledge.
And here we are back to the WSIS+20 review: If the next phase of digital cooperation is to be fit for purpose, it must be grounded in the lived experience of the regions. If we listen carefully to our regions, we will hear the blueprint for a future digital governance that is just, inclusive, and truly global.
The next generation has arrived!
When speaking in generations of Internet pioneers, we are possibly looking at the third generation now. The young people that are coming up now don’t know a world without the Internet, but they are the ones responsible to develop our digital futures. This needs a lot of capacity building, and we must offer a welcoming environment where they can grow. They have different skills, views and experiences and they are using the digital environment in other dimensions.
But they have questions and ideas that we must listen to, and it is our duty to elevate them to take over. At EuroDIG, youth participation has always been at the heart of our activities. We want to encourage young people to set their own agendas by providing the necessary knowledge to understand how the Internet, and the institutions dealing with it, work. For many that are now active contributors in the IG world, the journey began at YOUthDIG or other youth engagement programmes that are in place on the national levels.
In Lillestrøm we were proud to have 8 former YOUthDIG participants from 7 cohorts joining us, each of them contributing to the IGF processes in their own ways – by organising sessions, been invited as speaker, facilitating youth participation themselves, or reporting back to their respective communities. Notably, since 2022, YOUthDIG has always spoken at the Taking Stock session by sharing the YOUthDIG messages and highlighting the importance of youth participation in Internet governance. EuroDIG fosters their continued participation, and those participating at the IGF this year have taken on leadership roles in the IGF Community such as national (youth) IGF coordinators, YCIG WEOG representatives and programme committee members, and we will continue supporting their journey into Internet governance and community building.
Why must the technical community engage?
The technical community has long been recognized as an independent stakeholder group throughout the 20 years of the WSIS process, yet it is notably absent from the recently published elements paper – something that must be corrected. At the same time, there needs to be greater awareness within the technical community itself of why active participation in the broader societal discussion on Internet governance is essential. They cannot afford to leave key processes around Internet regulation solely in the hands of diplomats or governments, many of whom have limited engagement with the Internet governance ecosystem and often lack a deep understanding of how the Internet actually works – let alone the unintended consequences that legislation can bring. The technical community must actively fight for its seat at the table to ensure that the development of the Internet and related policy-making processes remain informed, balanced, and sustainable. As the Internet continues to evolve, decisions made at the governance level can have far-reaching impacts on how networks function and how resilient they remain. This makes it essential for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), registries, and all other actors operating at a technical level to be meaningfully involved – not only to bring their expertise into policy discussions, but also to safeguard the integrity of the Internet’s robust and distributed infrastructure. Their long-term engagement is critical to ensure that technical realities are properly understood that regulatory decisions do not inadvertently undermine operational stability, and that the Internet remains a secure, open, and interoperable resource for everyone.
Funding remains an issue – 20 years after the inception of the IGF
Most communities of youth, national and regional IGFs (NRIs) still very much rely on voluntary work or operate with very tiny budgets. Expectations are very high, but the secretariats of NRIs – drivers of the bottom-up process – are struggling to get the work done if it cannot be paid for. In addition, a structured knowledge transfer is missing that is needed when the generation of current active leaders moves on. In companies, significant amounts of funds are allocated for continuity processes, but it is hard to act pro-actively if we keep on relying on voluntary work. So much more could be achieved at an operational level or in public relations and media work to reach a larger audience to achieve a greater reach if appropriate budgetary resources were available. Meaningful stakeholder engagement is probably the most difficult and time-consuming part, but it will have the greatest impact.
Who should pay?
As said, NRIs are not UN bodies and even with a prolonged, or better a permanent mandate for the global UN IGF, which would bring undoubtedly a positive impact for the legitimacy of NRIs as well, it would not solve the funding challenges on a national and regional level. Whilst governments could be encouraged to support their respective national initiatives, they should also consider that a regional exchange is the binding element between the national and the global levels. In particular when a region is as organised as the European continent, where all states are members of the Council of Europe and more than half in addition are members of the European Union. A shared funding mechanism where every state would contribute small amounts would create a big impact to cope with the challenges.
But taxpayers’ money should not cover it all and the tech industry should also take responsibility here. In the year 2005, at the time when the world agreed on the WSIS principles, the first video was uploaded to a new platform called YouTube. Tech giants could innovate and grow in the past 20 years, while the united IGF community fought to keep the Internet open, free and interoperable. The success of the tech industry is partly grounded in these fora that foster a steady exchange among all stakeholders, without having to agree on binding resolutions. It is in the nature of the IGF eco system to express disagreement in the topical details, but the IGF community, including the NRIs, are united in the firm believe that good governance of the Internet is only possible when all stakeholders are heard.
It is time for those that build immense wealth to give back a minimal share to the global community that stands up for a digital environment that allows for innovation and is demanding to balance it with thoughtful regulation. To get the right balance is certainly not easy to achieve but it will continue with every new technology, that has a disruptive impact on traditional media or accepted norms, in particular in the times of geopolitical tensions across the globe. That is why EuroDIG 2025 was held under the overarching theme in 2025 “Safeguarding human rights by balancing innovation and regulation”.
Thanks to all who brought us here!
I would like to thank the Council of Europe for hosting us this year and inviting the European community to come back to the place where it all began in 2008. Partners and sponsors have helped to build EuroDIG as the regional Internet Governance Forum and we must take the next steps now. Europe is rightly considered a prosperous region, but more engagement is needed to uphold shared values and stand up for a rules-based digital world that is of benefit for all.
EuroDIG Secretariat
