Type: Non-profit organization
Industry: Domain Name
Founded: 2003
Headquarters: Park Station Woluwelaan 150, 1831 Diegem
Country: Belgium
Website: http://www.eurid.eu
Key People
Marc Van Wesemael, General Manager

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EURid (European Registry for Internet Domains) is a non-prrofit organization which was founded by the three organizations operating the national registries for Belgium,Italy and Sweden on April 8, 2003. The European Council appointed the organization to manage and operate the .eu top-level domain under the principles of common interest, quality, efficiency, dependability and accessibility within the member countries of the European Union.[1]

Background[edit | edit source]

The European Council begin to initiate the establishment of the .eutop-level domain (TLD) in 1999 and delegated the responsibility to operate the .eu registry to EURid on May 2003 however, the actual service agreement was signed on October 2004. [2]

On March 2005, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ([[ICANN])approved the application of EURid to include the .eu TLD to the root zone of the Internet Domain Name System (DNS).

On April 7, 2006, EURid officially opened the general registration of the .eu TLD on a first come per serve basis and on the same year, the European Chapter of the Internet Society(ISOC) joined the EURid as well as the organizations operating the Czech Republic and Slovenia TLDs. The following year, the Business Europe Organization also decided to join EURid.

On December 2009. .eu introduced the IDNs and subsequently on JUne 2010, it implemented the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), a protocol relevant in adding security to the DNS by preventing internet threats that intercepts web traffic and redirecting users to fake websites.[3]

Office Locations[edit | edit source]

EURid’s headquarter is located in Diegem, Belgium and it also serves as the regional office for Western Europe. The organization has three other regional offices that are located in Pisa, Italy; Prague, the czech Republic; and Stockholm, Sweden providing assistance to all registrars and costumers using the languages in the region.

Management[edit | edit source]

The European Commission is the over-all in-charge to ensure that the .eu registry is being managed and operated properly under the principles to which it was created. The daily operations of EURid is supervised by an executive management team under the leadership of Board of Directors.[4]

The management team include:

  • Marc Van Wesemael, General Manager
  • Bart Foutrel, Finance Manager
  • Peter Janssen, Technical Manager
  • Brigitte Lagrou, Communications Manager
  • Giovanni Seppia, External Relations Manager
  • Geo Van Langenhove, Legal Manager
  • Els Verstappen, Human Resources Manager

The Board of Directors include:

  • Pierre Verbaeten (DNS BE)(Chairman)
  • Marko Bonac (ARNES)
  • Danny Aerts (IIS)
  • Domenico Laforenza (IIT CNR)
  • Tomáš Maršálek (CZ.NIC)

A strategic committee which is composed by a representative from each member of the organizations and will not be more than 10 will provide advise to EURid and will conduct at least four meeting per year.[5] Other members include:

  • Philippe de Buck
  • Christopher Wilkinson.

References[edit | edit source]