[council] CENTR to review .EU Proposals

[Dennis Jennings <Dennis.Jennings@ucd.ie>]

European National Top level Domain Registries to review .EU Proposals

Meeting in Malta on 8 February, 2000, CENTR, the Council of European National
Top level domain Registries (including the 15 National Registries of the
European Union) reviewed the European Commission's working paper on the creation
of .EU, a proposal for a new Top Level Domain (TLD) for the registration of
Internet Domain Names. 

While broadly welcoming the Commission's e-Europe initiative, CENTR members
agreed that the specific proposal relating to the creation of a .EU Domain
required significant and detailed analysis.  CENTR members expect to be invited
to contribute to a public consultation process.  

Where appropriate, CENTR members will use established ties with their national
Internet communities to review and analyse the proposal, and to provide input
on: 

* The merits of creating .EU from the perspective of the Internet end user, and
the demand for such Domain Names throughout Europe

* The legal implications of creating .EU (Competition, law governing
registration agreements with .eu TLD registrants and the jurisdiction of courts
in member states; dispute avoidance and online dispute resolution, conflicts
with national Domain Name registrations and Domain Name warehousing)

* The registration policies appropriate to such a new Top Level Domain -a TLD
which is neither a country code TLD nor a global generic TLD (e.g. .com, .int);

* The role of the national Internet communities in the process of determining
the creation of such a new TLD.

CENTR will give these efforts high priority and expects to publish its report in
March 2000.


Further Information:

The European Commission's Working Paper, Creation of the .EU Internet Top Level
Domain Registry can be seen at:
http://www.ispo.cec.be/eif/InternetPoliciesSite/DotEU/WorkDocEN.html

More information on CENTR can be found at:
http://www.centr.org
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