The European Parliament yesterday adopted a recommendation by the Commission for a new Regulation to implement the forthcoming .eu top-level domain, allowing European citizens and organisations and businesses to have .eu web site and e-mail addresses.

The next step will be a final adoption of the proposed Regulation by the EU’s Council of Ministers.

The European Commission sees .eu as an opportunity to increase the use of the internet in Europe. It also expects that, “it will lead to a higher visibility of the European ‘brand’ in the virtual marketplace based on the internet.”

The Commission will next begin the procedure for the selection of the private sector, non-profit organisation to operate the .eu Registry, which will administer and manage the registration of .eu domain names. The new domain is expected to begin operation later this year.

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