La The press did a big echo of the European Commission decision about trust the .EU to EURID consortium. However, the question about the date of the first registries in .EU is always stated. Belgium and Italian promoters went on the ICANN Montreal corridors, weren’t so optimistic. As we say in our last "special edition", the next stage is the sign of a contract with the Commission itself . According with our reports, the negotiations with the Consortium don’t start, yet, and the present period is only a "first contact". Consequently, George Papapavlou- European Commission representative during the "General States of Dominion Name"- declared last week in Paris- "the .eu should be able to register in the spring of 2004". This seems enough optimistic, if you take into account that still, the second contract must be negotiated with the ICANN- see immediately- and the "Sunrise period" is obligatory. Then for 2004 or 2005? The question is stated but you can think- as Marc Van Wesemael recently said, he is the director of .rules and founder member of Eurid- it is already too late for .EU’s.

See: http://www.eurid.org/

JCV & SB