Europe’s internet registry wants governance ‘correction’ because its ‘Executive Board’ is not the executive

RIPE NCC hopes members get aboard effort to tidy things up and give its CEO a vote

RIPE NCC, the regional internet registry for Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia, has proposed a governance overhaul.

The registry (RIR) manages and distributes IP addresses and autonomous system numbers for 75 nations across an area that stretches from Greenland to Russia’s eastern extremities. The organization boasts over 20,000 members.

Chief Legal Officer Athina Fragkouli made the case for change this week in a post that says the purpose of the proposed change is “to bring its formal governance structure in line with the way the organization already works in practice.”

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The nub of the situation is that RIPE operates an “Executive Board,” all seven members of which are elected by members.

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“The current governance structure provides that the Executive Board is in charge of the management of the association,” Fragkouli explained. “The very name ‘Executive Board’ suggests that the RIPE NCC’s elected Board has an executive role in running the organisation.”

“In practice, it does not.”

That job goes to the org’s CEO, which RIPE’s articles of association refer to as the “Managing Director.”

The Executive Board can hire and fire the CEO, but its role is to provide oversight and direction.

RIPE functions well under these arrangements, but Fragkouli acknowledged “There is therefore a discrepancy between the formal governance structure and the reality of how the RIPE NCC operates.”

And that discrepancy appears to worry the Executive Board, members of which recently received governance training that Fragkouli says “brought the issue into sharper focus.”

“We subsequently sought advice from governance and legal experts on how best to address it and how we could make a change in structure that would provide a clearer and more robust arrangement,” she wrote. “The conclusion was that the most appropriate approach is not to redesign the way the RIPE NCC is practically governed, but to formalise it. In that sense, this proposal is better understood as a governance correction than as a fundamental governance reform.”

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The proposed correction would, however, bring a small but significant change by giving RIPE’s CEO a vote in Board decisions.

“This does not mean that the CEO becomes independent of the elected Board,” Fragkouli argued. “The Board will continue to have the authority to appoint and dismiss the CEO and to supervise the CEO's performance. The Board will also retain the ability to establish internal rules, policies and limitations governing how the CEO exercises executive authority.”

“The Board's role will become more accurately defined rather than reduced,” the Chief Legal Officer argued.

“This is an exercise in good governance,” she continued, “removing unnecessary ambiguity, clarifying accountability, simplifying the way executive authority is exercised, and ensuring that our Articles of Association accurately describe how the RIPE NCC is governed.”

The RIR will publish the text of the proposed changes by September 30, so members have a chance to consider the matter before the org’s General Meeting which runs from 28-30 October, at which the changes will be put to a vote.

RIR meetings can sometimes get politely feisty – which is kind of the point of the multi-stakeholder internet governance model under which all members have a vote and the chance to participate in policy development. Few, however, get actively involved. Perhaps this proposal will change that? ®