The UK can no longer use the .eu domain : what are the options ?

On the 28th of March 2018, the European Commission released a notice called “Withdrawal of the United Kingdom and EU rules on .EU domain names”. The notice can be found here.

It explained that the EU regulatory framework for the .eu Top Level Domain will no longer apply to the United Kingdom as from the withdrawal date. Therefore, any organisation with a .eu website will have to explore other options and probably move their website to another domain.

Despite Brexit, some organizations still want to keep a european identity. It is especially true in Education.  In November 2017, The British Academy published a document warning that economics and modern language departments would be badly hit if European academics leave the UK. You can find this document here.

In order to preserve a european identity in the UK and still respect the EU regulation, an option can be to migrate to another domain, like edu.eu, which does not depend on the country code top level domain, and will still accept applicants from the UK.

The organization behind edu.eu is now accepting applicants and you can check the eligibility criteria on their website.

Organisations in the UK registered with a .eu domain have until March 2019 to decide how they would like to proceed.