The European Union's .eu domain opened for registrations on Wednesday morning, with its supporters hoping the newest international domain will boost EU e-commerce. The launch of the domain ends a six-year process that began in 1999 and later received the support of the European Commission.

The domain will be the first to be shared by multiple countries. It will put the various member nations on equal footing, and could become the .com of Europe, industry executives say.

For the first two months of .eu's existence, only registrations for trademarks, public bodies and geographical locations will be accepted. After that, companies, trade names, business identifiers, and literary works could be registered in the following two months.

The domain would be opened up to individuals across the 25 European Union member states beginning April 7, according to EURid, the organization responsible for the database of .eu domain names.

The four month waiting period for open registration was born out of a request by the European Union in order to prevent "cybersquatting," where a person buys a domain name registered as a trademark by another company in order to resell it for a higher price.