Domain name .eu expands into EU alphabets

The .eu domain name is set to become available in the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets.

New European Union (EU) rules have been adopted by the EU Commission to allow businesses and individuals to register domain names under .eu using characters of the 23 official EU languages.

Domain name .eu will be available in the alphabets used by Cypriots, Greeks and Bulgarians later on in the year, as well as special characters used in other languages.

The announcement comes as a Commission report revealed that the number of .eu domain names registered grew by 11 per cent in 2007 and 2008 to currently stand at approximately three million.

Viviane Reding, commissioner for information society and media, said that when businesses choose to adopt a .eu domain name, it shows that they are "established in one of the 27 EU countries and subject to the high standards of EU legislation, particularly when it comes to data protection, consumer rules or the EU's financial market regulations".

Meanwhile, it has been reported that domain names related to singer Michael Jackson - who died last week - are on sale for millions of pounds.

Written by Rachel Jones