The European Commission is looking for an organization to run .eu, the top-level internet domain name the Commission hopes to create for companies and individuals in European Union member states.

This week, the Commission issued a call for expressions of interest from organizations that want to run the domain, which has been inching closer to reality for about four years, traversing the political red tape of the EU and the Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers.

To qualify, the potential registry has to be a non-profit organization incorporated under the laws of one of the EU's member states. Applicants will have to charge fees based on costs, and will have to provide mechanisms for other companies to become .eu-accredited.

Applicants will be evaluated and rated 1 to 5 on criteria including quality of service, human and technical resources, financial stability, and the increase of market competition. The deadline for applicants to express interest is October 25.

After the EU has a plan in place for launching .eu, it will have to request approval from ICANN, which decides what goes into the domain name system root. ICANN has already put the groundwork policies in place such that any request from the EU would likely be rubberstamped very quickly.

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