April 7 marks the 19th anniversary of TLD .EU, the consolidated national domain of European Union countries. The EURid registry managing this domain zone has recently extended a contract with the European Commission until 2027 and has issued a press release in this connection. It says that TLD .EU can be considered a key factor of the European online identity. It remains popular in all EU countries, with Germany, The Netherlands and France having the greatest number of registered domain names.
Security, inclusivity and users’ trust are core values of the common European national domain. Much has been accomplished in these spheres over the last 19 years. Since 2019, the domain zone has been operating an early warning system that exposes potentially harmful registrations. Called Abuse Prevention and Early Warning System (APEWS), it relies on AI algorithms for recognizing and blocking potentially harmful names before they are used for illegal purposes. The use of the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and the registry’s close cooperation with Europol enhance security still further and facilitate anti-cybercrime efforts.
Speaking of inclusivity, since 2021, citizens of the EU countries and the European economic zone are able to register names in the .EU domain zone irrespective of their place of residence. The launching of Cyrillic (.ею) and Greek (.ευ) internationalized versions of the common European national domain became an additional step toward inclusivity.
All these efforts strengthen users’ trust, as proved by the fact that, on its 19th anniversary, the .EU domain boasts an impressive 3.7 million registered names.
