"Today, that competitive knowledge society that is Europe becomes particularly visible to the eyes of the world on the Internet": the EU Commissioner for information society and mass media, Viviane Reding, launches the top-level domain .eu. This means that, from now on, all EU residents "can apply for registering a name in the Top Level Domain .eu, and such applications will be granted in the same order as they are received". And today also marks the end of the "sunrise" period, during which the holders of trademarks, public bodies and companies had to submit their applications to be granted the .eu extension for their websites: so far 320 thousand applications have been sent to Brussels. "Now, Europe and its citizens added Luxembourg-born Reding can cast their identities on the web, and be protected by the EU regulations. I expect thousands of applications will instantly be submitted, thus making the European domain an important name, just like .com". Registration costs may vary, depending on the area of the 25 member states and start at 12 euros. "The whole website of the EU institutions explains a release of the Commission and all email addresses of the European officers will take the .eu extension on May 9th, which is the Day of Europe".
