News
Call for Tender - CENTR Crawler: Now open for public proposals
CENTR is inviting proposals from providers to operate a domain crawler that will enable analysis of domain properties and usage across participating ccTLDs.
The selected provider will be responsible for:
🔹 Running the crawling process
🔹 Processing and classifying the collected data
🔹 Delivering structured outputs for CENTR and its members
CENTR issues Board statement on data retention for law enforcement
CENTR has published a Board statement on data retention for law enforcement purposes.
EU Policy Update - Summer 2025
In a nutshell: The European Commission presented a proposal for the EU budget, launched calls for evidence on the 28th regime, for revising Europol’s mandate, and the Digital Fairness Act. It also published a roadmap on FOSS. Eight Member States have yet to transpose the NIS 2 Directive into their national legal frameworks. The NIS Cooperation Group has launched a public consultation on post-quantum cryptography and published its annual report about NIS incidents in 2024. The ENISA Advisory Group published an opinion paper on the NIS 2 implementation. The Dutch government published a non-paper on the Cyber Security Act. The EDPB and the EDPS published a joint opinion on the proposal for GDPR simplification. The EDPS closed its investigation into the European Commission’s use of Microsoft 365.
Call for Tender - CENTR Crawler
CENTR is launching a Call for Tender for the provision and operation of a domain crawler for CENTR.
DNS intervention for financial oversight: the misuse of a technical tool
In recent years, the Domain Name System (DNS) attracted the attention of EU regulators, spanning from cybersecurity to agricultural policy. There has been a growing trend of including domain names in legislation outside the typical digital sphere. One such area that has emerged as increasingly relevant for registries and registrars is financial regulation. Based on recent EU financial regulations such as MiCA, FiDA and PSR, it is possible to identify the clear direction in which financial oversight is moving. While domain names are critical for almost all digital services available online, this criticality has also translated into a powerful enforcement tool, as EU financial policymakers have recently discovered.
EU Policy Update – June 2025
In a nutshell: The European Commission published the review of the progress towards the Digital Decade targets, published a roadmap on access to data and opened a data retention consultation and a call for evidence on the Standardisation Regulation. The Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU outlined its priorities. The Council of the EU included a domain-level enforcement measure in the Payment Services Regulation and reached a general approach on the Insolvency Directive. The JURI Committee of the European Parliament adopted its version of the Insolvency Directive. ENISA published two NIS 2-related guidance documents and launched a call for experts on the Managed Security Services. Europol published a new Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2025.
CENTR signs joint statement on preserving net neutrality in the upcoming Digital Networks Act
Today, CENTR joins a broad group of 84 signatories, supporting the pushback against potential measures introducing a dispute resolution mechanism in the interconnection market in the upcoming DNA proposal.
Collaborating for Better Address Validation: The OpenPAQ Initiative
With growing regulatory demands such as the NIS2 directive, registries across Europe are under pressure to improve the quality of their domain registration data - especially postal address data. However, validating addresses is inherently complex due to global variation in formats, languages, abbreviations, and user behaviour. A rigid comparison with official notations often fails, as people commonly include typos, additional details, or unconventional formatting that still makes sense to a human.
CENTR holds the European DNS Women chapter
On 10 June 2025 in Prague, CENTR hosted a special cocktail event to mark a significant milestone: together with Luísa Ribeiro Lopes, CEO of .PT, our organisation was awarded the European Chapter diploma for the DNS Women project. Originally launched by ICANN in 2009, this initiative aims to encourage, inspire, and actively support women in the DNS industry.
EU Policy Update – May 2025
In a nutshell: The European Commission published an International Digital Strategy, a non-paper on WSIS+20 review process, and opened a call for evidence Consumer Agenda 2025-2030 and European Business Wallet. The European Parliament adopted a report on European tech sovereignty, and published its findings and recommendations on the European Democracy Shield. The Council of the EU published its latest version of the insolvency proposal. Polish Presidency at the Council of the EU published conclusions on strengthening EU democratic resilience. ENISA published a handbook for cyber stress tests.