IT was supposed to offer companies a chance to embrace their European identity but instead the process of obtaining an .eu domain for websites has left many Irish firms complaining of European bureaucracy.

Irish companies have one of the highest rejection rates among those applying for the name, which became available last April. The average European rejection rate is about 30%, but 79% of Irish companies, or 479 out of 610, have had their applications turned down.

Companies were entitled to apply for a domain name during a protected “sunrise” period if they could show a prior right to it. According to Patrik Linden, communications manager of the Eurid, the agency in charge of managing the .eu domain, Irish law is to blame for the high failure rate.

“Rejections show we’re doing a good job on checking applications,” said Linden. “While it is unfortunate for Ireland and the UK, their rejections are high because their company law is not as strong as continental Europe in protecting their names. The other reason is that they misunderstood the rules.”

More than 2m names have been registered but unscrupulous companies and “cyber-squatters” have stockpiled thousands of addresses. Pressure groups have accused Price Waterhouse Coopers, which is in charge of the validation system, of mismanagement.

Aileen O’Toole, managing director of Amas, an Irish internet consultancy firm, recently received a rejection note six months after she applied.

“It’s crazy,” she said. “We spent €300 getting our application together, including getting an affidavit to say we were entitled to the Amas name in Ireland. Now we’ve been rejected I don’t think it is worth spending €2,000 appealing. It makes me furious because spammers will get our domain like they have got thousands of others already.”

Last July Eurid suspended more than 70,000 accounts it believed were owned by “warehouse” companies that were illegally stockpiling addresses.

Whereas Bertie Ahern, several county councils and internet-savvy companies such as Ryanair and Aer Lingus got their names, others such as sundayindependent.eu, dublin.eu and cork.eu fell victim to warehouse companies.

Both endakenny.eu and michaelmcdowell.eu were purchased by David Voakes, a Tallaght student. Voakes said he just “took two shots in the dark”, by registering the domains. Fine Gael has since paid Voakes €2,000 to secure the Enda Kenny domain.

The Progressive Democrats have not moved to secure their name, which is owned by a Timothy Moriarty. Moriarty, who didn’t reply to e-mails last week, also owns quinndirect.eu. That site now redirects surfers to a rival insurance company’s site.

John McCormac of whoisIreland.com, an internet monitoring company, said the prestige of the .eu domain has suffered. “The .eu domain is no longer the domain of the European Union,” he said. “It was bought from a naive registry by sharp business people.”

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