A union's domain
.eu went live in 2006, giving the European Union a single top-level domain alongside its members' national ccTLDs. It's run by EURid, a non-profit based in Belgium, under contract with the European Commission. There are also versions in other scripts: .ею in Cyrillic and .ευ in Greek.
Eligibility is the main thing to know: you need an EU connection. EU citizens can register from anywhere in the world, as can residents and organizations established in the EU or the wider European Economic Area. After Brexit, UK-only registrants lost their eligibility.
Good for
- Businesses serving customers across several EU countries
- EU institutions, projects and associations
Watch out for
- Registrants must be EU/EEA citizens, residents or established organizations
- UK-based registrants lost eligibility after Brexit
.eu by the numbers
.eu is the top-level domain of the European Union. "EU" isn't a country code in the usual sense: it is exceptionally reserved in ISO 3166-1, and that reservation is what made a ccTLD possible.
IANA lists EURid vzw as the manager of .eu, with an address in Belgium. The registry's website is http://www.eurid.eu. ccTLD managers set their own policies — who can register, which second-level names exist, pricing to registrars — so those rules differ from country to country.
Under the hood, the root zone points to 5 name servers for .eu, 4 of them reachable over IPv6. The delegation is DNSSEC-signed, so resolvers can verify that answers for .eu haven't been tampered with on the way. Registration data is published over WHOIS (the WHOIS server is whois.eu).
European Union also has other country-code domains in the root zone: .ею (Cyrillic) and .ευ (Greek).
Same registry, other endings
2 other TLDs share this operator.
.eu FAQ
Who can register a .eu domain?
EU citizens wherever they live, residents of EU/EEA countries, and organizations established in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway.
Is "EU" a country code?
Not exactly. "EU" is exceptionally reserved in ISO 3166-1 for the European Union, which is what made a ccTLD possible.
What country is .eu?
.eu is the country-code top-level domain for the European Union.
Who owns the .eu domain?
IANA lists EURid vzw as the manager of .eu: it runs the registry and sets the rules for European Union's ccTLD. Individual .eu names belong to whoever registers them.
Is .eu DNSSEC-signed?
Yes. The root zone has a DS record for .eu, so DNSSEC validation works all the way down from the root.
How do I look up who owns a .eu domain?
Query the registry's registration data service: the WHOIS server is whois.eu. Many registrants use privacy services, so personal details may be hidden.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed October 21, 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
