The European Union, since it does not have an ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2
code element, has yet to qualify for a ccTLD under long-established ICANN/IANA policy
(see RFC 1591). (The ISO 3166 group has reserved the EU Alpha-2 code element
for it, but it has not institutionalized and may never institutionalize the EU Alpha-2
code element as part of the ISO 3166-1 standard.) If ICANN
grants the .eu domain, then it will have moved into the realm of deciding what is
or is not a country for purposes of a ccTLD. This will unecessarily politicize
decsions, as revolutionary, extralegal, and other governments demand that they also
be allowed as exceptions to the ISO 3166 standard.
For example,
should Lebanon still have one, despite the Syrian military presence? If so,
then why not the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is politically separated
from the Republic of Cyprus by a Turkish military presence? What about Kosovo?
And why not other international orgaizations? Should ICANN really
be in the buisness of deciding if international organizations like NAFTA, OAS, OAU,
ASEAN, the Arab Leauge, CARICOM, CIS, or any of dozens of others are "important"
enough to qualify for their own domains? CARICOM in particular has a number
of parallels to the EU, including having many of its states having the same currency,
high court, basic legal system, and common defense treaties.
So let's wait until the EU has an ISO 3166-1 entry.