The domain was approved by the European Commission in March
2002, and will be operated by the European Registry of Internet
Domainnames (EURid). The domain is not yet live and no registrars
have been accredited as sellers.
Many domain name registrars are already trying to sell .eu names
by offering pre-registration services which invite anyone to pay to
reserve a chosen .eu domain name.
All that these services can promise is that they will attempt to
register the name when .eu goes live – and there may be several
people and registrars competing to purchase the same name. EURid
has advised businesses and consumers to steer clear of these
pre-registration services.
Before the domain can be launched, EURid has to agree a contract
with the Commission, while the Commission and Member States have to
thrash out public policy rules.
EURid has also to make an agreement with ICANN (the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the body with
responsibility for managing the internet's system of domain names,
and ICANN has to make the appropriate technical changes to allow
the .eu domain to work.
According to EURid's web site, the Commission has indicated that
the public policy rules will not be announced before the end of
February, and on this basis EURid has set out a preliminary
timetable for the launch of the domain.
The plan is that in March 2004 the Registry will be preparing
and amending its systems, contracts, rules and procedures to
reflect the agreed public policy rules. Full information will be
published on the web site and translated into other EU
languages.
In June, EURid hopes to begin to accredit registrars and a list
of these will be published on the web site. Then, between September
and November 2004 a sunrise period will operate.
Sunrise is a common phase for new domain name roll-outs that
lets owners of registered trade marks secure their rights before
the names go on a first-come, first-served basis after the domain
launch. During this period applicants will have four weeks to
provide proof of their existing rights. If they cannot comply, the
names will be released for others to register.
