A draft European Commission decision, which has been leaked and
posted on the internet, suggests that EURid, a Brussels-based,
non-profit consortium, has been selected to operate the forthcoming
.eu top level domain, which will be open to European citizens,
organisations and businesses.
The draft Decision was put on-line by Bret Fausett, a lawyer
with Californian firm Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft, who runs a
popular ICANN blog.
A blog, or weblog, is a personal journal that a writer updates
frequently for any readers. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers, is the body that needs to authorise the
operation of any new top-level domain. It had already granted this
authorisation to the EU – which began looking for a registry to run
a database of .eu registrations in September 2002.
The draft Decision simply states that EURid, the European
Registry for Internet Domains, "is designated, as the .eu Top Level
Domain Registry with the organisation, management and
administration of the .eu Top Level Domain." This is subject only
to the condition that EURid's members submit to the Commission
proof of the final establishment of the organisation within three
months of the decision coming into force.
According to EURid's site, its founder members are DNS Belgium,
Istituto di Informatica e Telematica (Italy) and Network
Information Centre Sweden. Among its associate members are bodies
from Slovenia, Czech Republic and Luxembourg.
According to the Commission's timetable for the .eu domain, the
registry should begin processing applications for the name later
this year.
