[address-policy-wg] 2010-03 New Policy Proposal (Global Policy State in RIPE PDP)

Hello all,

>     http://www.ripe.net/ripe/policies/proposals/2010-03.html

The objective of this policy proposal is to modify the PDP in a way specific to
global policies. Global Policies (which, by definition, affect IANA), may not
take effect until they have gained consensus in all five regions. In the case
where RIPE adopts a global policy proposal but the proposal later changes in
another region, this modification would make it explicit that RIPE may consider
the changed text despite having already adopted an earlier text.

Since RIPE 60, it's become clear to me that this is a more complex proposition
than it looks. As I said at the meeting, the current Global Policy Development
Process is very good at doing one thing: where a policy has consensus in all
five regions, it is very good at determining this.

By changing the RIPE PDP to try to make it easier to reach consensus where it
does not yet exist, a number of complexities are introduced. In particular, on
this list there have already been some questions about the cases enumerated
where a GPP might not reach consensus. I think now that by changing the PDP in
this way, we would have to enumerate many such cases, at various points of the
PDP, and I fear we would not successfully cover them all.

So while the goal is a laudable one, as I said at RIPE 60, I am not satisfied
that this is an elegant way to solve it. The problem is not urgent, and we
already have a way to deal with such a problem when it arises. So I do not
think there is much to be gained by pushing forward in this way. On this basis,
I would like to withdraw this proposal and, as suggested at RIPE 60, consider
more generic alternatives.

Best regards,
Dave

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