On 3 September 2002 the European Commission published in the Official Journal of the European Communities a "CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST FOR THE SELECTION OF THE .eu TLD REGISTRY".
Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No. 733/2002, which came into force on 30 April 2002, defines the future Registry as follows:
"The entity entrusted with the organisation, administration and management of the .eu TLD including maintenance of the corresponding databases and the associated public query services, registration of domain names, operation of the Registry of domain names, operation of the Registry TLD (Top Level Domain) name servers and dissemination of TLD zone files".
The aim of this call for expressions of interest is to solicit applications from organisations interested in participating as candidates for the Registry selection procedure. The ongoing procedure is established on an open call according to the European principles of objectivity, non-discrimination and transparency.