Citizens' initiative for a European .IA domain registered by the Commission
in plain words
A group in Europe wants a new internet address ending in .IA for artificial intelligence. The European Commission, the EU's main government body, has accepted their plan for formal review. Many AI websites now use .ai, which belongs to the small Caribbean territory of Anguilla, so the renewal fees go there.
Full summary
Organizers of a European Citizens' Initiative say the European Commission has declared their proposal legally admissible and formally registered it. The proposal calls for the creation of a European digital district under the .IA domain, intended for the governance of sovereign artificial intelligence. The initiative is recorded under the reference ECI(2026)000012, and the organizers say the registration Obtaining the right to use a domain name for a set period. Full definition of registration came through a Commission implementing decision dated 6 October 2026, adopted at a meeting in Strasbourg.
The organizers argue that Europe has no domain of its own for artificial intelligence. They say the .ai domain, widely used by startups and research groups in Spain, Portugal and Latin America, is tied to Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, so European users pay recurring renewal Paying to extend a domain registration for more time. Full definition of renewal fees there. They note that the country code .ai matches the English abbreviation for artificial intelligence only by coincidence. Their alternative is the Spanish abbreviation .IA, linked to the Greek island of Anticythera, where the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient bronze geared device, was recovered from the sea in 1901.
To reach admissibility, the organizers say they had to assemble a citizens' committee of at least seven residents from seven different member states. They name a multinational committee with members from Spain, Greece, France, Portugal, Hungary, Croatia and Cyprus, led by Greek co-representative Aristeidis Tsitiridis. They also had to show that the Commission has legal competence to legislate on a top-level domain. Their case cites articles 16, 114, 172 and 173 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, along with Regulation (EU) 2019/517, which created and governs the .eu domain.
The organizers argue that a European domain could help bring AI-related governance into the DNS Domain Name System The internet's directory that links domain names to computer addresses. Full definition of DNS. They point to the AI Act and other EU digital laws as examples of rules that they say need a domain-level presence.