The European Commission has opened a consultation to determine if the existing policies and regulations around .eu are still fit for purpose, or if they need to be changed or updated.
 
.eu represents the "online digital brand" of the European Union. Registrations commenced on 7 April 2006 and at the end of March 2017, .eu was the 7th largest ccTLD in the world with over 3.7 million registrations. The .eu ccTLD provides a unique European domain for organisations and individuals resident in EU Member States as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
 
Over the last decade, the domain name market has changed, most notably with the introduction of more than 1,200 new gTLDs. And as with many ccTLDs, particularly in western countries, .eu growth appears to be slowing, if not plateauing.
 
In the first quarter of 2017, the total number of .eu domains under management (DUM) dropped by close to 5,000, most likely as part of the seasonal variation, but with 185,964 new registrations. The new registrations were almost 11,000 more than in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to EURid's, the .eu registry, most recent quarterly report. Germany, The Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, Poland and Italy were the top countries for .eu registrations, being the only countries with over 250,000 DUM. Austria had the highest growth in registrations for the quarter, growing by 17.5% in the quarter, and 20.7% for the year, to make Austria the ninth largest country when it comes total .eu registrations.

The consultation is open to the public until 8 August 2017. Business representatives, those working in the public sector, academia and those with an interest are invited to provide input and help determine the future of .eu domain name. There is a questionnaire for the public consultation and more information at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/content/public-consultation-evaluation-and-revision-eu-top-level-domain-regulations_en