The draft Decision was put on-line by Bret Fausett, a lawyer with Californian firm Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft, who runs a popular ICANN blog.
A blog, or weblog, is a personal journal that a writer updates frequently for any readers. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is the body that needs to authorise the operation of any new top-level domain. It had already granted this authorisation to the EU – which began looking for a registry to run a database of .eu registrations in September 2002.
The draft Decision simply states that EURid, the European Registry for Internet Domains, "is designated, as the .eu Top Level Domain Registry with the organisation, management and administration of the .eu Top Level Domain." This is subject only to the condition that EURid's members submit to the Commission proof of the final establishment of the organisation within three months of the decision coming into force.
According to EURid's site, its founder members are DNS Belgium, Istituto di Informatica e Telematica (Italy) and Network Information Centre Sweden. Among its associate members are bodies from Slovenia, Czech Republic and Luxembourg.
According to the Commission's timetable for the .eu domain, the registry should begin processing applications for the name later this year.