European Commission

EC stands for the European Commission or the European Community. It is an executive body of the European Union, which proposes legislation to the Council and the Parliament and administers and implements legislative EU policies and enforces EU law jointly with the Court of Justice. It represents the general interests of Europe as a whole.

Structure of the European Commission

The EC comprises of a College of Commissioners. A Commissioner per member state is appointed within the College of Commissioners. The Commissioners of each member state are responsible for representing the interests of the entire European Union (EU).

The EC is divided into several services and departments known as the Directorates-General or DGs. These DGs are classified based on the policies with which they deal, usually issues that have a specific mandate or are mostly administrative. For instance, creating statistics or to detect fraudulent activities.

Role of the European Commission

The EC is responsible for drafting proposals for new EU laws. It also manages the daily business of implementing the policies of the EU and allocates the EU funds. The EC also sees to it that no one violates European laws and treaties.

The working of European Commission

The EC is highly active and addresses all key issues concerning the European Union by formulating and bettering various policies in areas such as agriculture, transport, energy and natural resources, the economy and finances, external relations and foreign affairs, culture, education and youth, business, cross-cutting, climate action, and others.

European Commission and ICANN

In the year 2009, at the advent of ICANN’s contract ending in September, EC appealed for an international involvement in carrying out the responsibilities of ICANN. EC explained that the management of internet, which has now become a vital part of global economy and tool for communications, should not be assigned to a single country. ICANN though a private firm is partly controlled by the US Department of Commerce (DOC) and is answerable to the US government. In a paper titled "Internet Governance: Next Steps", the EU proposed that ICANN be handled by private bodies without any government intervention in its day-to-day activities, but be governed according to the principles agreed upon by the public authorities. Also the commission called for international talks on internet governance realizing that the next billion internet users will mainly come from the developing world. On September 30th, 2009 US government declared that ICANN will be governed by international parties. ICANN from then onwards was subject to independent review panels appointed by ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and not solely to the review of US Department of Commerce (DOC). Viviane Reding, EU's Commissioner for Information Society and Media, welcomed the US administration’s decision and said that "the internet users around the world can now anticipate ICANN’s decision as more independent and accountable."

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).