L 82/14 Official Journal of the European Union 27.3.2015 COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 201 5/516 of 26 March 2015 amending Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 laying down public policy rules concerning the implementation and functions of the .eu Top Level Domain and the principles governing Registration (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 733/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 April 2002 on the implementation of the .eu Top Level Domain (!), and in particular Article 5(1) thereof, Having consulted the Registry in accordance with Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 733/2002, Whereas: (1)  The introduction of the Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) has created risks of confusability of domain names which were registered in different scripts but which may create visual confusion. That might be due in particular to the visual resemblance between their constitutive characters (for instance, between the Cyrillic small letter ‘r’ and the Latin small letter ‘n’). To minimise such risks, the Registry should implement technical checks, which might lead to such IDNs being declared ineligible for registration. Such technical checks should be in compliance with international standards and might be updated from time to time. (2)  In order to expand the security and abuse checks around .eu domain names, it is necessary to ensure that the verification by the Registry of the validity of the registration applications takes place prior and not only subsequently to the registration. The verification should be carried out at the initiative of the Registry or pursuant to a dispute for the registration of the domain name in question. (3)  The current Registry operator of the .eu Top Level Domain (TLD) has communicated to the Commission that the domain names ‘eurethix.eu’, ‘eurethics.eu’ and ‘euthics.ew’, previously reserved by the Registry under Article 17 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 (?), are never going to be used and hence they should be removed from the aforementioned Article and released once the amended Regulation is published. (4)  Special characters, including characters £ (German sharp S) and ¢ (Greek final sigma) have not been offered when IDNs were launched under .eu. As the IDNA2008 protocol has allowed their management, it is deemed appropriate to offer them to support the official Union languages. The Annex has been updated following consultations with EU Member States, candidate countries and EEA member States in order to incorporate domain names containing these new characters. (50 On 1 July 2013 Croatia acceded to the European Union. Accordingly, Croatia should have the possibility to register the domain names that have been reserved for Croatia according to Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 and its subsequent amendments. (6)  The incorporation of .eu Regulations in the Agreement on the European Economic Area allows undertakings having their registered office, central administration or principal place of business in Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, organisations established in Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein and residents in Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein to register names under the .eu TLD. (7)  The lists of names that can be reserved by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway respectively, so far set out in point 2 of the Annex, should be transferred to point 1 of the Annex. () OJL113,30.4.2002,p. 1. (%) Commission Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 of 28 April 2004 laying down public policy rules concerning the implementation and functions of the .eu Top Level Domain and the principles governing registration (O] L 162, 30.4.2004, p. 40).