The European Parliament has adopted a draft law to introduce a top
level .eu domain for the European Union.
Political approval from the European Parliament comes after lengthy
internal debate on the issue.
The European Commission welcomed the Parliament's support, and said
it expected the Council of Ministers to give its support to the
move "very soon".
Once the Council of Minsters has signed up to the initiative, the
Commission will be able to begin the procedure of choosing a
private-sector, non-profit organisation to operate the .eu
registry, which will administer the registration of all .eu domain
names.
Erkki Liikanen, Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information
Society, said that while this new law will provide the basis for
the new domain name, "some other measures of public interest still
need to be agreed, such as a policy for the extrajudicial
settlement of disputes".
Liikanen said, with the support of member states, the .eu domain
name "could be available by the end of the year."