Plans for `dot eu' domain to go before Commission

Plans for a new primary domain name, "dot eu", will be put before the European Commission early next month by the Finnish Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Technology, Mr Erkki Liikanen.

"The overall motivation is to promote electronic commerce in Europe," says Mr Per Haugaard, spokesman for the Commissioner in Brussels. "Our idea is to strengthen the Internet infrastructure of Europe, as well as to increase the image and consumer confidence among European users," he added.

European consumers would feel more confident about using it because it would make it clear they were doing business in the European marketplace, Mr Haugaard said.

"Basically it would allow companies to identify themselves as Europeans, especially organisations with a cross-border nature and cross-border regional groupings, which are not specifically connected to one country," he added.

The chief executive officer of Nua, an Internet consulting and development company, Mr Gerry McGovern, believed the proposal was "broadly a good idea". Europe has been caught in a "dot com" syndrome which he thinks paints an almost exclusively American view of the world.

He said the Internet was one of the least diffuse environments in a practical, functional and economic sense, especially considering that more than 60 per cent of all traffic went to fewer than 20 of the 12 million existing sites. The global e-commerce market is valued at £14 billion (€17.8 billion). It is expected to grow to around £207 billion by 2003.

The Department of Public Enterprise supports measures that will encourage e-commerce and adds that it is considering amendments to ".ie", the Irish domain name, "with a view to making it more business friendly". Mr Liikanen will present a communique to the European Commission on Wednesday outlining plans to "sound out" European institutions and industry as well as private and commercial users on the proposal.

"I can't say very much about it at this moment in time, other than we are taking the first step in the process of creating a top-level domain name by suggesting the `dot eu' proposal," said Mr Haugaard, who added that consultations with the public would follow for six weeks.

The Commissioner's office has already received indications that there is a strong support for such a primary domain name.

Part of the problem is that the "dot com" domain has been congested and it is difficult for companies to find names which properly describe their title or activity.