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For immediate release
Press Release
The European Commission chooses EURid to manage .eu domain names
Brussels - Pisa - Stockholm, May 22nd 2003. Today, the Commission announced
that it has chosen the EURid consortium to run the .eu TLD. EURid is a not
for profit organisation that is built around the Belgian, Italian and
Swedish registries.
This decision is the latest step in the process of creating a new European
Top Level Domain extension. EURid responded to the Call for Expression of
Interest that was launched by the European Commission in August last year. A
panel of independent experts then evaluated the bids and indicated EURid as
the best choice to run the .eu registry.
The three registries have very complementary competences :
The Belgian registry (DNS BE) has gone through a successful liberalisation
at the end of 2000, an experience that is similar to the creation of a new
registry. DNS BE will make available its automated registry system that is
considered as one of the most advanced in the market.
The Italian registry (IIT-CNR), as a division of a well-known research
institute, has developed tools for securing electronic transactions. Their
security systems and the related know how, in combination with their
experience of running a large registry will be a key factor in the success
of the .eu registry.
The Swedish registry (NIC-SE) has been involved in the creation of Internet
standards and has a long standing tradition of interactive consultation with
the local and international Internet Community. This experience will be
crucial in the start up phase of .eu. Recently, .se has made the step to an
open and unrestricted registry.
While promoting virtual offices where competences are spread over different
locations, EURid's head office will be located in Brussels and will house
the main development and operational teams, as well as the support
organisation focused on the central region. Other regional offices
overlooking the northern and southern regions will be established in Sweden
and Italy.
EURid will work exclusively through a network of registrars to promote
competition. The registrars will have a completely automated registration
system at their disposal to register .eu domain names for their customers,
with minimal or no human intervention from the registry.
Although the .eu TLD is a relative latecomer to the market, EURid estimates
that a potential of 1 million domain names after 1 year is still possible.
Next steps. In the coming weeks, negotiations will take place between the
European Commission and EURid to finalise the agreement and to establish the
public policy for the .eu registry. Once the administrative part is
finalised, including the delegation from ICANN, EURid estimates that .eu can
go life within the next 6 months.
It is clear that a lot of issues still need to be resolved and that some
will depend on the definition of the public policy and on further
negotiations with the European Commission. We will hold a press conference
as soon as we have more details from these discussions with the Commission.
Marc Van Wesemael
DNS Belgium vzw
Koning Leopold I straat 1 bus 2
3000 Leuven
Tel. : +32 (0)16 28 49 70
Fax : +32 (0)16 28 49 71
http://www.dns.be
Franco Denoth
IIT-CNR
via G. Moruzzi 1
56124 Pisa, Italy
Tel : +39 050 315 2112
Fax : +39 050 315 2186
http://www.iit.cnr.it
http://www.nic.it
Anders Janson
Nic-Se Network Inf.
Centre Sweden AB
P.O. Box 5774, 114 87
Tel. : +46 (0)8 545 857 00
Fax : +46 (0)8 545 857 29
http://www.nic-se.se
DNS Belgium
DNS BE was created in february 1999 by ISPA Belgium, Agoria and Beltug with
the purpose to register and manage domain names in the .be domain space.
Advisory members of the board are : the BIPT, the ministry of Economic
Affairs, professors Pierre Verbaeten (KUL) and Paul Van Binst (ULB) and the
former president of the board Joeri Uyttendaele. DNS BE has currently more
than 250.000 .be domain names.
###
IIT-CNR
IIT-CNR is the Institute of Informatics and Telematics of the Italian
National Research Council. The Institute carries out research, technology
transfer and training activities in information and communication
technologies (wireless mobile Internet, internetworking techniques and
network security, certified electronic transactions, etc.) and computational
sciences (algorithms and computational complexity, algorithms for WEB
technologies, computational biology, etc.). IIT-CNR is managing the .it
ccTLD since December 1987, when the 1st ARPANET node was set up in Italy.
The .it registry contains, at present, over 800.000 domain names.
###
NIC SE Network Information Centre AB
Nic-SE was created in July 1997 by the Foundation for
Internet-Infrastructure (IIS) with the purpose to register and manage domain
names in the .se domain space. Nic-Se is a subsidiary of IIS. The board
members of IIS are appointed by Isoc-Se, the Confederation of Swedish
Enterprise, the Swedish Internet Operators' Forum, the Swedish Federation of
Trade, the Swedish Consumer agency and the Swedish Bankers' Association.
NIC-SE has currently more than 160.000 domain names
###
You can find this press release as a Microsoft Word Document on our website
in three languages:
http://www.eurid.org/press/Press_Rel...3_eurid_EN.doc
http://www.eurid.org/press/Press_Rel...3_eurid_FR.doc
http://www.eurid.org/press/Press_Rel...3_eurid_NL.doc
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