22OCT

EU registers petition for .IA AI domain

1 min read

17:24UTC

The Commission registered a European Citizens' Initiative seeking a sovereign .IA namespace for European AI governance; organisers now have to gather signatures across the bloc.

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TechnologyAssessed

Key takeaway

A citizens' push for a sovereign .IA domain cleared its legal check and now needs signatures.

The European Commission registered a European Citizens' Initiative on 6 October seeking a sovereign .IA namespace for European AI governance, to be negotiated with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and ICANN, the body that runs the internet's domain-name system⁠¹.

Registration is a legal admissibility check only, and organisers now need one million signatures across at least seven member states within 12 months of opening collection. The proposal would add a naming layer on top of the AI Act rulebook, which the AI Omnibus amended in July.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

A European Citizens' Initiative is a petition tool. If one million EU citizens from at least seven countries sign within a year, the European Commission must formally respond, though it does not have to pass a law. This one asks for a web address ending .IA, the French, Spanish and Italian abbreviation for AI, reserved for European AI services. Web endings like .uk or .de are managed through ICANN, a global non-profit, using country codes set by an international standards body. Getting a new two-letter ending would need their agreement.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Two-letter top-level domains are reserved by convention for country codes on the ISO 3166-1 list, maintained by the International Organization for Standardization. That is why the organisers name ISO alongside ICANN: a code like .IA sits inside a system built for countries, not technologies.

What could happen next?

Meaning
The initiative tests whether digital sovereignty has enough public support to gather signatures across seven countries.
Risk
ICANN and ISO conventions may block a two-letter domain that is not a country code, whatever the signature count.

Sources:European Commission

Mentions:European Commission →AI Omnibus →ISO →

First Reported In

Update #17 · EU questions AI labs over loss of control

European Commission· 22 Oct 2026

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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.