The fourth European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) forum opened in Belgrade on Monday, bringing together 400 representatives of governments, regulatory authorities and the private sector.

The two-day conference, at the Sava Centre, is held to agree European positions ahead of the UN Internet Governance Forum, due to take place in Nairobi at the end of September.

EuroDIG 2011 was organised by the Council of Europe, OFCOM Switzerland, DiploFoundation and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), with support from the Serbian National Register of Internet Domain Names (RNIDS), the Serbian Telecommunications Agency and big name commercial associates, including Google, Verizon and ICANN.

Subjects on the agenda are European internet priorities, net neutrality, e-government and the relationship between the internet and democracy.

Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and State Secretary for the Digital Agenda at the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information, Jasna Matic, opened the conference. And scheduled speakers included Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe Maud de Boer-Buquicchio; deputy head of the Russian Ministry of Communications Ilya Massuh; deputy director and head of the telecomms department at the Swiss Federal Office of Communication (OFCOM), Philippe Metzger; CEO of Telenor Serbia, Kjell Morten Johnsen; director and founder of the DiploFoundation, Jovan Kurbalija and director of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Development Bureau, Brahima Sanou.

EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes also addressed the gathering via video message.

EBU panellists were Aleksandar Tjanic from Serbian Member RTS; Bram Tullemans from NPB; EBU Head of Institutional Relations, Giacomo Mazzone and Zeljka Lekic from the ERNO regional news exchange, based in Serajevo.