Domain names under the .eu top-level domain can now be registered in all EU languages

Not all of the EU languages are based on the Latin "a" to "z" alphabet. Greece and Bulgaria, for instance, use other alphabets and in Denmark we have the three additional letters æ, ø and å. Nonetheless, it was only possible to use the 26 letters of the Latin "a" to "z" alphabet, the numbers "0" to "9" and the sign "-" when registering domain names under the .eu top-level domain.

In June 2009, the Commission adopted rules to make it possible for the .eu top-level domain to contain characters from all of the 23 official EU languages. Consequently, citizens, businesses and organisations have since 10 December 2009 been able to register EU domain names with characters from all these languages.

When registering a domain name, it is therefore now possible to use, for instance, Greek or Cyrillic names such as www.διαδίκτυο.eu or www.роуминг.eu. One can also use the Danish letters æ, ø and å. These are referred to as internationalised domain names (IDNs). However, it is not possible to mix for instance Latin, Greek and Cyrillic in one single IDN and not all signs are supported under the .eu top-level domain. It is, for instance, not possible to use the German ß.

An Internet browser can only handle IDN if it has the correct plug-in. And not all email software can handle IDN. If your applications – or your computer keyboard – do not support IDN you can use the so-called ACE strings. If the name of the relevant email address is, e.g., 123@bücher.eu, you can instead send an email to 123@xn--bcher-kva.eu.

On the face of it, the ACE string system does not seem particularly user-friendly and it will probably be an advantage to keep a domain name based on the Latin alphabet while at the same time using an IDN.

(The European Commission's press release of 10 December 2009, as well as further information at www.eurid.eu)