Domain Registration Related News
Signatures on dotted line for .eu
October 2004
EURid, the official Registry for .eu names, has
reported that it has finally signed its service
contract with the European Commission. This
represents a major milestone on the road to the
launch of the new domain.
The next step in the process is for the Commission
to notify ICANN so that negotiations can proceed
for .eu to be put into the domain name system's
'root' - the place where technical pointers to the
registries for all official top level domains,
both generics (eg. .com) and country codes (such
as .uk) are kept.
In a statement, EURid indicated that it wishes the
discussions with ICANN to be finalised quickly as
it anticipates that there will be a period of six
to nine months after this has happened before .eu
registrations will be able to commence.
In the meantime, EURid is busy writing the
policies which it is obliged to put together under
the European Regulation already passed by the
Commission. These will cover topics such as how
phased registration (similar to the 'sunrise' and
'landrush' periods of other recently introduced
names) will work for holders of certain rights,
how the Whois database will operate within the
existing framework of tough European data
protection legislation, and how and by whom
disputes over .eu names will be managed. When
putting the policies together, EURid will consult
with the Commission and other parties, including
possibly certain member states. Unlike other
registries, EURid will have a major translation
task ahead of it too, since it is likely that the
policies will need to be expressed in all 20 of
the official EU languages.
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