Implementation of the .eu Top Level Domain

The committee adopted the report by Colette FLESCH (ELDR, L) broadly approving the proposal under the codecision procedure (1st reading), subject to a number of amendments. It felt that creating the domain ".EU" would be a crucial factor in speeding up the development of the e-economy and e-commerce in Europe. However, many of the amendments sought to spell out clearly that the proposed Registry should be set up and should operate fairIy and transparently, functioning independently of the persons or entities acting as Registrars. The committee also felt that the list of the Registry's tasks as set out in the proposal was not sufficiently detailed, and adopted a series of amendments designed to make them more specific. Among other things, it wanted to establish the principle that registrations should be done on a "first come, first served" basis. Moreover, the Registry should be simply a registry and not a supervisory body, and every precaution should be taken to avoid its incurring legal liability as a result of the registration of names. In the event of disputes, it should provide a mediation and arbitration service either free of charge or on a cost-recovery basis. The Registry should also operate at no net cost to the EU budget, and the Commission should therefore be entitled to make a management charge for all services it provided to support the registry activities. The committee also wanted the Registry to have a Policy Advisory Board for allocating second-level registrations, with representatives from a broad cross-section of society. Another amendment said that Member States should be able to prevent the registration under the ".EU" domain of terms containing established geographical, geopolitical or historical concepts which impacted upon the territorial organisation of a Member State. Lastly, the committee wanted the proposal to initiate a process whereby on-line traders registered under ".EU" would eventually adhere to a duly-accredited code of conduct and an extrajudicial dispute-resolution scheme, thereby ensuring that consumers would come to have confidence in the ".EU" zone. �