Commission, EURid to sign '.eu' domain name contract

October 2004

The European Commission and EURid – the organisation that has been selected by the European Commission to run the ".eu" domain name - are expected to sign a contract shortly, making the domain name finally usable.

According to a report in the EUobserver, the first registrations of .eu websites should be possible by the summer of 2005. Sources at the European Commission even expect to have the domain name available for registration by early next year.

However, once the Commission has signed the contract, it will still be a long time before registration can begin. According to a provisional EURid timetable, “the European Commission must make an official request to ICANN to recognise EURid as the company selected to operate .eu in order to finalise negations with ICANN."

The contract between the Commission and EURid would end the current wrangle over the .eu issue, but after the enlargement, EURid will face the added difficulty of coping with the jump from nine to 20 EU languages: “as the terms and condition of registration [have to be available] in official EU languages”.