.eu officially opens regional office in Prague

EURid logoEURid has announced it has opened a third regional office, in Prague, the Czech Republic. The office opened on December 11 in the presence of Mr Alexandr Vondra, the Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs. The successful Internet top-level domain .eu now has close to 2.7 million registered domain names, and it is growing

EURid logoEURid has announced it has opened a third regional office, in Prague, the Czech Republic. The office opened on December 11 in the presence of Mr Alexandr Vondra, the Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs. The successful Internet top-level domain .eu now has close to 2.7 million registered domain names, and it is growing.

The Prague office will assume responsibility for the support of the Central Europe region and will offer support to registrars, domain name holders and the general public in their respective local languages—Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian and Slovak.

Marc Van Wesemael, General Manager of EURid, comments: “I am very pleased that the new office was set up in Prague. In this dynamic and growing city we found good quality office space and the highly qualified people we were looking for. Simply speaking, Prague is the ideal place and matches our corporate image.”

The importance of the .eu domain name in the EU context is highlighted by the presence of the Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, Mr Alexandr Vondra, at the opening today, who says: “I think it is important that all EU residents be able to get support for .eu in their respective languages and that the Prague branch became an important part of the .eu domain management structure.”

The Prague office will be managed by Regina Fuchsová, who has been with EURid since September. Ms Fuchsová has previous experience with the Czech NREN (National Research and Education Network) operator as well as with the EU pre-accession Phare projects.

Ms Fuchsová says of her new role: “I am delighted to head the office in Prague, which is responsible for the support of six new EU member states, and participate in the promotion of the European identity via .eu. Symbolically, we are located in a country with one of the highest .eu growth rates and Prague is also the place where all the ADR [Alternative Dispute Resolution] disputes for .eu are handled by the Czech Arbitration Court.”

“The Czech Arbitration Court has successfully mastered the .eu ADR and at present intends to develop its domain name dispute administration services to become one of the leading domain name ADR centers in Europe,” says Zbynek Loebl, member of the Advisory Board of the Czech Arbitration Court’s .eu ADR Center and partner at Central European Advisory Group.

Since April 2006 it has been possible for anyone living within the European Union to register a .eu domain name. So far almost 2.7 million.eu domain names have been registered, making .eu the third-largest European top-level domain. By establishing regional offices, EURid is able to provide better service by being closer to the market and the end user. EURid will be serving its stakeholders from offices in Brussels, Pisa, Prague and Stockholm.

This news release originally appeared at, and more information on Eurid is available from, eurid.eu/content/view/238/33/lang,en/