Telecommunication ministers of the 15 European Union (EU) member
states have approved a plan to create a .eu top-level domain (TLD)
name, ending a year of debate within the European institutions.
The decision, "paves the way for EU Internet users for the first
time to be able to have pan-European domain names and e-mail
addresses", said European commissioner for the Information Society,
Erkki Liikanen.
The European parliament gave its blessing to the project last month
and the European Commission, the initiator of the .eu project, will
now push ahead in setting up the infrastructure needed for the
domain.
This includes selecting of a private, non-profit organisation to
manage the TLD, and defining rules to prevent domain-name squatting
and to ensure effective cross-border settlement of disputes about
domain names.
The Commission is expected shortly to call for organisations
interested in running the .eu registry to step forward.
National registries within the EU are expected to be among the
likely candidates. The Irish registry, which manages the .ie
domain, has so far expressed the most interest.