diff --git a/docs/HISTORY.txt b/docs/HISTORY.txt
index 25c6fd3..4d2cb3a 100644
--- a/docs/HISTORY.txt
+++ b/docs/HISTORY.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 Changelog
 =========
 
+2.6 - (2021-04-08)
+---------------------------
+* add email validation (replacing validate_email package) [dumitval]
+
 2.5 - (2021-01-08)
 ---------------------------
 * Bugfix related to encoding in search [dumitval]
diff --git a/eea/usersdb/db_agent.py b/eea/usersdb/db_agent.py
index 67c60ba..97c19de 100644
--- a/eea/usersdb/db_agent.py
+++ b/eea/usersdb/db_agent.py
@@ -994,7 +994,6 @@ def set_user_info(self, user_id, new_info):
         log.info("Modifying info for user %r", user_id)
 
         for dn, modify_statements in six.iteritems(diff):
-            # import pdb; pdb.set_trace() # no longer needed ?
             result = self.conn.modify_s(dn, tuple(modify_statements))
             assert result[:2] == (ldap.RES_MODIFY, [])
 
@@ -1439,6 +1438,15 @@ def members_in_org(self, org_id):
         return [self._user_id(d) for d in attr['uniqueMember'] if
                 d.decode() != '']
 
+    @log_ldap_exceptions
+    def org_country(self, org_id):
+        ''' return two letter ISD country code of organisation '''
+        query_dn = self._org_dn(org_id)
+        result = self.conn.search_s(query_dn, ldap.SCOPE_BASE,
+                                    attrlist=('c',))
+        assert len(result) == 1
+        return result[0][1]['c'][0].decode('utf-8')
+
     @log_ldap_exceptions
     def pending_members_in_org(self, org_id):
         ''' list pending members of org '''
diff --git a/eea/usersdb/schema.py b/eea/usersdb/schema.py
index 5908a58..0dcabf2 100644
--- a/eea/usersdb/schema.py
+++ b/eea/usersdb/schema.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 ''' users db schema '''
+import re
 from six.moves import range
 import colander
 import phonenumbers
@@ -10,7 +11,7 @@
      "country / area code provided. If you second check and believe "
      "the number is correct, please contact HelpDesk.")
 )
-INVALID_EMAIL = "Invalid email format"
+INVALID_EMAIL = "Invalid email format %s"
 
 NUMBER_FORMAT = phonenumbers.PhoneNumberFormat.INTERNATIONAL
 
@@ -74,9 +75,14 @@ def _latin_validator(node, value):
 
 # max length for domain name labels is 63 characters per RFC 1034
 _url_validator = colander.Regex(r'^http[s]?\://', msg=INVALID_URL)
-_email_validator = colander.Regex(
-    r"(?:^|\s)[-a-z-A-Z0-9_.']+@(?:[-a-z-A-Z0-9]+\.)+[a-z-A-Z]{2,63}(?:\s|$)",
-    msg=INVALID_EMAIL)
+
+
+def _email_validator(node, value):
+    """ email validator """
+    pattern = (r"(?:^|\s)[-a-z-A-Z0-9_.']+@(?:[-a-z-A-Z0-9]+\.)+[a-z-A-Z]"
+               r"{2,63}(?:\s|$)")
+    if not re.match(pattern, value):
+        raise colander.Invalid(node, INVALID_EMAIL % value)
 
 
 class UserInfoSchema(colander.MappingSchema):
diff --git a/eea/usersdb/version.txt b/eea/usersdb/version.txt
index 95e3ba8..5154b3f 100644
--- a/eea/usersdb/version.txt
+++ b/eea/usersdb/version.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-2.5
+2.6