The European Commission yesterday adopted a proposal to create a registry to run the top level domain of ".eu" which is due to become available next year for businesses in Member States. The proposed registry will be the body that will run the domain in practice.

Erkki Liikanen, Commissioner responsible for Enterprise and Information Society said the proposal, "brings Europe one step closer to making the .eu top level domain a reality. Whilst national extension codes will continue to exist, the .eu top level domain will provide Europe's companies the additional possibility of identifying themselves as European or pan-European companies on the internet."

The Commission’s view is that the .eu registry could provide to internet users in the Community an enhanced degree of identity and facility for registration of names that would strengthen the future development of the internet and of electronic commerce in Europe.

The Commission's proposal would create the legal framework for the new registry and for the development of the necessary public policy measures for the operation of the registry. In particular the Commission would be responsible for developing and adopting policies regarding speculative and abusive registration of names and alternative dispute resolution procedures. Such policies would be adopted after consulting the Member States through an Advisory Committee and consulting the registry itself.

Other aspects of the registry's policies could be proposed by the registry itself, including dealing with the question of which second level domains should be introduced, and how they should be used, such as: ".press.eu", ".ngo.eu", ".media.eu", "project.eu", ".lex.eu", ".event.eu", etc.

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