'.eu' domain name opens to all, as Internet usage continues to climb
'Today, Europe's competitive knowledge society becomes very visible to the world on the Internet,' said EU Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding on 7 April, announcing that Europe's new Internet domain, '.eu', is now open to everyone. The only requirement for registering a name under the .eu Top Level Domain is residence in the European Union. Registrations will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis. 'Europe and its citizens can now project their own web identity, protected by EU rules. I expect thousands of applications to be filed in the first few hours' public 'land rush', making .eu a powerful domain name on equal footing with .com,' said the Commissioner. Those wishing to register a .eu domain name should choose an accredited .eu registrar from the European Registry of Internet Domain Names (EURID). Hundreds of registrars are competing to register names, allowing customers to shop around for the best deal in terms of price, quality and services offered. Registration costs will vary across the EU. The EU institutions and their officials will switch en masse to .eu names and e-mail addresses on 9 May 2006 - Europe Day. UK MEP Graham Watson, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), claimed to be one of the first applying for a new web address. 'The .eu domain name is of huge symbolic value in the history of the integration of our continent. It will do for Internet surfers what the Euro did for cross border shoppers and shows that Europe exists alongside Member States as a valid and useful level of governance and citizenship, bringing added value without detracting from national cultures,' he said. Meanwhile new figures from Eurostat show that a quarter of households and two-thirds of enterprises had broadband Internet access in 2005. In total, 48 per cent of households had Internet access, and 91 per cent of enterprises. Household Internet access ranged from 16 per cent in Lithuania to 78 per cent in the Netherlands. Individual usage was found to be increasing, with 43 per cent of those questioned now using the Internet at least once a week. The highest levels of regular use were recorded in Sweden (76 per cent), the Netherlands (74 per cent) and Denmark (73 per cent). The lowest levels were recorded in Greece (18 per cent), the Czech Republic and Cyprus (both 26 per cent). There does remain however a high proportion of individuals who have never used the Internet - 43 per cent in the EU25. 50 per cent of women and 50 per cent of unemployed people have never used the Internet.