Three years after its launch, the .eu top-level internet domain continues to be a success story. There are now more than three million internet domains under Europe's own top-level domain. Even the financial crisis has not stopped this growth: the number of .eu domains increased by 2% during the first quarter of 2009, and .eu was firmly entrenched as the fifth most popular country code top-level domain worldwide.

By promoting a distinctly European online identity .eu can help citizens and businesses to reap the full benefits of Europe's single market. Multinational companies and SMEs, NGOs, think tanks as well as citizens have all adopted .eu to mark their web presence. They are not the only ones. Early last month, Sweden made a symbolic gesture by being the first Member State to adopt ".eu" for its official website dedicated to the Presidency of the European Union that will start on 1 July: www.se2009.eu.

"I welcome the fact that Sweden has decided to choose a .eu domain for their presidency of the European Union that will start on 1 July. This is an encouraging sign which will hopefully be followed by many presidencies in the future," said Viviane Reding, the EU's Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "By choosing a .eu domain name for its website, the presidency can clearly show that the chairmanship is not about the country that presides over meetings for 6 months, but about working for the whole of Europe. This also shows that .eu, which celebrates its third birthday today, is becoming the natural choice for anyone seeking a European online identity."

.eu has consolidated its place among the ten largest top-level domains in the world, such as .com, .net. and .org. Registrations for .eu domains have grown every year since its introduction three years ago, on 7 April 2006, reaching the three million mark earlier this year. Nearly 3,050,000 .eu domains had been registered by March 2009.

Most .eu domains have been registered in EU countries with the largest populations and highest internet take up as a proportion of population. Germany continues to lead with 30%, followed by the Netherlands (14%), the United Kingdom (12%), France (8%) and Poland (6%).

Background

.eu first opened on 7 December 2005 to holders of prior rights including trade mark holders and public bodies. Since early April 2006, registration has been open to all EU residents and organisations established in the EU. Management of the .eu registry (the database holding all .eu registrations) is entrusted to EURid, an independent not-for-profit organisation. By its first anniversary, 2.5 million .eu domain names had been registered, another 300,000 domain names were added in 2007.