EN Official Journal of the European Union L 166/3

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 560/2009

of 26 June 2009

amending Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 laying down public policy rules concerning the implementation and functions of the .eu Top Level Domain and the principles governing registration

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 733/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 April 2002 on the implementation of the .eu Top Level Domain (1), and in particular Article 5(1) thereof,

Having consulted the Registry in accordance with Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 733/2002,

Whereas:

(1) The third paragraph of Article 6 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 (2) provides that the Registry shall perform the registration of domain names in all the alphabetic characters of the official languages of the Community when adequate international standards become available.

(2) The official languages of the Community comprise more alphabetic characters than those which were available for registration at the beginning of the phased registration period provided for in Chapter IV of Regulation (EC) No 874/2004.

(3) However, it has now become technically possible to register names in the official languages of the Community under the .eu Top Level Domain (hereinafter TLD) also using alphabetic characters which were not available for registration at that time.

(4) It needs to be ensured that interested parties are informed of the new characters before those characters become available for registration of names under the .eu TLD. Therefore the Registry should publish in advance information about alphabetic characters which will be added to the characters already available for registration of names under the .eu TLD.

(5) In accordance with the second paragraph of Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 the Commission has asked the Registry to introduce certain domain names directly under the .eu TLD for use by the Community institutions and bodies. Now that it has become technically possible to register names in the official languages of the Community under the .eu TLD also using alphabetic characters which were not available for registration at the beginning of the phased registration period provided for in Chapter IV of Regulation (EC) No 874/2004, the Commission should be given the possibility to ask the Registry to introduce domain names containing those characters in addition to the names it has already asked for.

(6) The Member States, candidate countries and the members of the European Economic Area have requested the registration or the reservation of their names in accordance with Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 874/2004. The names concerned are listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 874/2004. Now that it has become technically possible to register names under the .eu TLD also using those alphabetic characters of the official languages of the Community which were not available for registration at the beginning of the phased registration period provided for in Chapter IV of Regulation (EC) No 874/2004, certain countries have requested changes to those lists.

(7) It is therefore necessary to update the lists in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 in order to duly take into account names containing characters that were not previously available.

(8) Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 should be amended accordingly.

(9) As it is in the interest of the European citizens and enterprises to have the possibility to register names in the official languages of the Community using alphabetic characters which were not available for registration at the beginning of the phased registration period provided for in Chapter IV of Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 as soon as possible, the entry into force of this Regulation should not be unduly delayed.

(10) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Communications Committee (3),

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 is amended as follows:

1. Article 6 is amended as follows: (a) the first, second and third paragraphs become paragraphs 1, 2 and 3; (b) the fourth paragraph is replaced by the following: ‘4. If it becomes technically possible to register names in the official languages under the .eu TLD using alphabetic characters which were not available for registration at the beginning of the phased registration period provided for in Chapter IV, the Registry shall announce on its website that it will be possible to register names under the .eu TLD containing those characters. The announcement shall contain a list of the characters in question and set out the date from which it will be possible to register .eu domain names using them. The announcement shall be made three months before that date at the latest. 5. The Registry shall not be required to perform functions using languages other than the official languages.’;

2. Article 9 is amended as follows: (a) the first and second paragraphs become paragraphs 1 and 2; (b) the following paragraph 3 is added: ‘3. If it becomes technically possible to register names in the official languages under the .eu TLD using alphabetic characters which were not available for registration at the beginning of the phased registration period provided for in Chapter IV, the Registry shall notify the Commission thereof. That notification shall be made at the latest one month prior to the day of the announcement referred to in Article 6(4) and shall indicate the date of the announcement. At the latest 10 working days before the date indicated in the announcement made in accordance with Article 6(4), the Commission shall ask the Registry to introduce any domain names containing one or more of those characters which it wishes to reserve for use by the Community institutions and bodies, directly under the .eu TLD.’;

3. in the fourth subparagraph of Article 11 the reference to ‘the third paragraph of Article 6’ is replaced by a reference to ‘Article 6(3)’;

4. in the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 of Article 12, he reference to ‘the first paragraph of Article 6’ is replaced by a reference to ‘Article 6(1)’;

5. the Annex is replaced by the Annex to this Regulation.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, 26 June 2009. For the Commission Viviane REDING Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 113, 30.4.2002, p. 1.

(2) OJ L 162, 30.4.2004, p. 40.

(3) OJ L 108, 24.4.2002, p. 33.