"Today, Europes competitive knowledge society becomes very visible to the world on the internet," said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding.

"Europe and its citizens can now project their own web identity, protected by EU rules," she said, adding that she expected thousands to rush to make ".eu a powerful domain name on equal footing with .com."

The .eu tag is not intended to replace the national identifiers used by the EU's member states such as Britain's .uk, France's .fr or Germany's .de, or indeed wider identifiers such as .com or .org.

During the first, four-month "sunrise" period of registrations, some 320,000 businesses and institutions applied to use the .eu tag to give a distinctive European flavour to their websites or email addresses.

Perhaps tellingly, the list of most popular domain names so far claimed is headed by "sex.eu," followed by other money-spinning business addresses as "realestate.eu" and "hotel.eu."

Some critics complained that the first two phases of the .eu application process were a bit complicated, but EURid insists it is clearer and simpler for individuals bidding for names in the "landrush" of applications from Friday.

Individuals can apply at one of some 1,500 registration centres, which will then pass the information on to EURid itself. Applications are not limited to Europeans, but applicants must be able to prove European residence.

The cost varies -- between 12 and 100 euros -- depending on where you register. A list of registrars is available on this website.