As from the beginning of 2006, businesses and citizens who register Dot EU internet addresses will be able to benefit from higher visibility within the EU single market and a level playing field for electronic commerce.
[European Commission press release] In the coming days, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will put the Dot EU top level domain in the Internet root, further to a 21 March agreement between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Dot EU Registry.
Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said: "The agreement reached between ICANN and EURid constitutes a landmark in the history of the Dot EU project. It gives the green light for the final technical preparations to permit Dot EU to become a reality before the end of the year".
A domain name is a simple way for a computer or network to be identified on the Internet. Rather than having numerical addresses that are difficult to remember, Internet users prefer domain names.
The Dot EU TLD will be a new Top Level Domain that will not replace the existing national TLDs in the European Union (e.g. Dot FR for France, Dot BE for Belgium, Dot PL for Poland...) but will complement them and give users the option of having a pan-European Internet identity for their internet presence – generally web sites and e-mail addresses.
The Commission has made a number of preparations for the launch of this TLD during the last few years.
Following the signature of the contract between the European Commission and EURID, the organization selected by the European Commission to operate the Dot EU Registry, on October 12 2004, the Commission authorized EURID to negotiate with ICANN an agreement for the delegation of the Dot EU TLD.
This agreement, now approved by the Commission, enshrines ICANN’s official recognition that EURID will be the body appointed by the European Union to run the Dot EU TLD for the next five years.
This agreement makes also possible to include the Dot EU TLD in the internet root file address. IANA will do this, at ICANN’s request, as soon as EURID has completed the necessary technical preparations.
Before the Dot EU Registry can accept the first applications to register Dot EU names, EURID must accredit Registrars – companies which can register domains on behalf of end users – and agree the details of registration policy with the Commission and other interested parties.
EURID, with the cooperation of the Commission, is working on these final preparations with the aim of launching the first phase of registration later this year.
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