- Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries
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The Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR) is an association of Internet country code top-level domain registries. Full CENTR membership is open to organisations, corporate bodies or individuals that operate a country code top level domain registry.
The project that became CENTR was formed in March 1998 through the RIPE Top-level Domain Working Group and was informally funded by participant registries through. In 1999, it was legally established as a not-for-profit company in the UK, limited by guarantee. At the end of 2006 CENTR vzw/asbl was established as an not-for-profit organisation under Belgian law. CENTR's activities are funded by membership fees, and performed by a secretariat based in Brussels, Belgium.
The organisation has a European focus, but there are no geographical restrictions to CENTR Members. In addition to more than forty of the countries in the region, CENTR has members the country-code registries from a number of countries outside of Europe (such as Iran, Japan, New Zealand and Canada). CENTR welcomes the application from all country-code managers. CENTR has 47 Full Members, 8 Associate Members and granted Observer status to 8 organisations.
CENTR provides a forum to discuss matters of policy affecting ccTLD registries and acts as a channel of communication to Internet governing bodies and other organisations involved with the Internet. It promotes the interests of not-for-profit ccTLDs and lobbies on their behalf.
The rules and registration procedures of ccTLD registries vary considerably and CENTR aims to collect information on, and document the practices of ccTLD registries. It provides a focal point for enquiries on such matters and encourages amongst ccTLDs the provision of better service for users.
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