European Union information

Starting points

Europa - the European Union's server . Access to all the official EU sites. This site is designed to be all things to all users, so it is sometimes useful to use alternative ways into the material. A good starting point for navigating Europa is the Information sources and contacts page
European Documentation Centres Joint homepage . A site developed to help students and researchers find reliable information about the EU, both official and unofficial
EU treaties on Europa. Full text of the treaties as pdf files as well as explanatory notes.
A-Z Index to Europa, arranged by theme. Useful if you want to see what is in the site
Activities of the EU - summaries of the main EU legislation measures and procedures
Euroguide - a very nice easy to use A-Z guide from Essex County Library, designed for public use
University of Mannheim EDC - a wonderful resource for EU information
European Resource Centres aimed at schools and colleges
SOSIG Europe - links to European resources on the Social Sciences Information Gateway

Search engines and databases

European Integration Current Contents - tables of contents of over 100 journals from the Academy of European Law, Florence, and the Jean Monnet Chair, Harvard University
ECLAS - the European Commission Library. You can search this for books, documents and articles, and for internet resources. A very good bibliographic resource on the EU
Articles from periodicals - an index to articles on the ECLAS site. Click on Eclas under Articles from Periodicals
Community Preparatory Acts - index to Commission proposals (COM documents) and other acts
Official Documents - this site includes green & white papers, reports, communications, programmes and other resources
IDEA - Interinstitutional Directory of the EU. A who's who of people in all the institutions of the EU
RAVE - an index to court decisions and articles in journals on Public International Law and European Law. Over 180 journals from 1995 are covered, with links to full text online where available

European Union institutions
European institutions - comprehensive list on the European Parliament page Agencies and other bodies Directorates General and Service
Committee of the Regions Council of the European Union Court of Auditors Economic and Social Committee European Commission European Parliament	European Court of Justice European Central Bank European Investment Bank European Ombudsman European University Institute Europol
Directorates General (select list)
Agriculture Budget EuropeAid Competition Development Economic and Financial Affairs Education and Culture Employment and Social Affairs Energy and Transport Enlargement Enterprise Environment Legal Service Eurostat	External Relations Fisheries Health and Consumer Protection Humanitarian Aid Office - ECHO Internal Market Information Society Justice and Home Affairs Publications Office Regional Policy Secretariat General Trade
European law Primary and secondary law Eur-Lex - the official database for European Law, including the Official Journal, Treaties, recent Case law, Legislation in force, Legislation in preparation . The Official Journal is on Eur-Lex from 1998 European Court of Justice - includes recent case law (from 1997), list of all cases lodged before the court, Proceedings of the Court and other materials Legislation in preparation on Eur-Lex includes COM documents and other proposals The Amsterdam Treaty page and the Citizen's Guide The Nice Treaty (text in pdf) and more information including a Citizen's guide, factsheets, etc. The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office also has useful material on the Treaty The Charter of Fundamental Rights together with ancillary material CELEX is the official EU legal database, for which a password is required Virtual library of the EDC at the University of Mannheim. This excellent site allows you to search for EU legislation and other documents chronologically or by number, title, etc. You can also use this to search for any European Union documents and much other information from their EDC homepage European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters.This European Commission site links to the judicial system of all the member states, with information on the court structure, civil procedure, the legal professions, dispute resolution, etc. There is both general and state by state information The legislative process European Parliament European Parliament UK Office This includes latest news from the EP, useful information on the workings of the EP, and a list of UK MEPs Legislative Observatory - the European Parliament's site for searching the legislative process of the EU PreLex - official database for monitoring the decision-making process between EU institutions Common positions referred by the Council to the European Parliament from 1999 Other European Union sources CORDIS - Community Research & Development Information Service ECLAS - the European Commission Library catalogue, for searching for documents Eurostat - Statistical office of the EU, includes a database of Statistical Indicators EUR-OP - The Publications Office of the EU IDEA - Interinstitutional Directory of the EU TED - Free access to Tenders Electronic Daily on the web, for details of EU public procurement opportunities News & current awareness - official and non-official Bulletin of the European Union - the monthly record of EU business BBC News - European news EBED - Electronic Bulletin of European Documentation produced at the Unversity Catholique de Louvain and providing a bimonthly selection of full text documents EU Observer EU news in a magazine format. Informative and current, includes sections on Justice, Enlargement and Defence, as well as a searchable news archive. EurActiv - portal for EU affairs, news, policy positions Eurofocus - news items dealing with everyday events, from the Commission, aimed at a general readership European Access Plus a searchable site for up to date EU information and including Know Europe, a comprehensive set of links European Commission Representation in the UK has a very useful website which includes daily and weekly news bulletins, and Background Briefings on EU policy matters European Voice articles from the weekly publication Midday Express - press releases and news summaries from European institutions Press Room - the European Commission's daily news service RAPID - press releases from the European Commission's Spokesman's Service. Daily update Special policy areas Agencies and bodies - agencies, foundations and centres set up following a decision taken by the European Commission or the Council of the EU, but working entirely as autonomous bodies Britain and the European Union - the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's site Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union Full text of the Charter, as well as press releases, FAQs and a section on 'Fundamental Rights and the EU, the wider context' CFSP - Common foreign & security policy from the External Relations DG EIROnline - European Industrial Relations Observatory provides up-to-date information and analysis on industrial relations in the EU Enlarging the EU - the Foreign & Commonwealth Office site includes sections on Enlarging the EU, EU policies and the Future of Europe Europa Enlargement website. EU resources on enlargement. Includes an overview of each of the candidate countries and links to key documents, as well as a newsletter and the Enlargement Bulletin. European Community Studies Association. Information and documents relating to European Integration. Includes links to Treaties, databases, policy documents and institutions. Useful material, well organised European Union in the World. Europa site dealing with external relations including Enlargement, Humanitarian Aid, External Trade and Foreign Policy. European Monetary Union - see below for sites Eurydice - Information Network on Education in Europe includes a searchable database of all the EU's education programmes Information Society Technologies - research and technological development within the EU, on the CORDIS site ISPO - EC Information Society Project Office - includes legal and regulatory material JHA - cooperation in the fields of justice & home affairs Migration Policy Group. Links to policy papers and analysis of legislation on migration and discrimination. Comparative reports on national discrimination laws and EU Directives. Ploteus - Portal on Learning Opportunities Throughout the European Space. A service of the European Commission giving detailed information on educational systems, learning opportunities, exchanges etc. in all member states Rural Europe - forum on Europe's future rural development policy EuropeanMonetary Union EURO - One Currency for Europe: the official EU website Euro - the European Central Bank's pages Euro Information - the official UK Treasury website European Monetary Union - government policy from the UK Treasury Euro Information Service - a comprehensive website of financial and other information on the Euro, from the Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens Miscellanous resources see also Current Awareness CONECCS - Consultation, the European Union and Civil Society. Information about consultation and interest groups CESSDA - Council of European Social Science Data Archives EURODICAUTOM - European law dictionary, which lets you search for terms in the 11 official languages of the EU EuroInternet - Information Resources Related to European Integration on the Internet Europe - Magazine of the European Union (EU Delegation to the US) European Commission and special interest groups - for lobbying organisations European Documentation Centres - comprehensive listings of EDCs and other European information centres The European Information Association - links EU information providers across the world The European Union in the US - admirable guide to EU resources from the Delegation of the European Commission to the US European Union Information Network in the UK - The Commission's Representation in the UK provides a comprehensive list of national and local organisations, including European Documentation Centres Futurum - discussion forum on the future development of the European Union Statewatch monitors the state and civil liberties in the European Union and includes a news bulletin and a database of its work and publications since 1991 Your Voice in Europe Europa interactive citizenship site. Part of the Interactive Policymaking programme UK government sites The European Union Select Committee of the House of Lords, and access to its sub-committees Reports and publications of the House of Lords European Select Committee European Scrutiny Committee of the House of Commons European Standing Committee debates - House of Commons European Communities Legislation - House of Commons Factsheet Britain and the EU - Foreign & Commonwealth Office pages Department of Trade & Industry - Europe pages *See also Special Policy Areas and European Monetary Union* Collections of research papers and documents European Constitutionalism, from Manchester University Institute of European studies. Full text papers on constitutionalism. ERPA - European Research Papers Archive: a single point for searching for papers from several separate archives, including some of those listed below European Integration Online Papers - EIoP. Publishes recent papers in the field. Eurotext - a resource bank containing full text EU documents (University of Kent only) Historical Archives of the EU at the European University Institute, Florence History of European Integration -site at Leiden University providing extensive links to archve materials Jean Monnet Working Papers - published at Harvard University. The site also includes European Integration Current Contents, tables of contents to over 100 journals Walter Hallstein-Institute for European Constitutional Law - papers on European constitutional law, many in English

European Union, European Commission

Guides:

European Union Research (NYU Law Library)
START HERE if you are researching the European Union, especially for law-related research. Decide what type of material you need (Treaties, legislation, scholarly books and articles, general information about the EU, etc.), and this guide will point you to the relevant information sources and official EU documents, whether in print or online. It has links to databases of EU law and to many websites, including the websites of the major EU institutions.

Accessing European Union Information
By the Office of Press and Public Affairs of the Delegation of the European Commission in Washington, DC. It provides links to primary sources as well as to secondary sources. Look also at the Delegation of the Commission to the U.S. to see other extensive guides to EU documents including descriptions and hypertext links. In order to search go to EU Research Tools - Research & Academic.

Columbia University: Western Europe & the European Union Information Sources

Quick List of European Union databases:

Archive of European Integration (AEI)
The AEI is an electronic repository and archive for research materials on the topic of European integration and unification. The goal is to collect research materials - working papers, policy papers, conference papers, small monographs, pre-prints, etc. - on this topic both for current use and for permanent archiving.

Bulletin of the European Union
The formerly Bulletin of the European Communities is useful for tracking the legislative process and gathering citations to documents. For more information visit European Foreign Policy Bulletin (1985 -present).

Celex Web Service
A fee based database. It includes the full text of legislation published in the Official Journal of the European Communities in the L Series and the citations to information in the C Series. If you have a WESTLAW or LexisNexis password (available to NYU law students and NYU law faculty only), use WESTLAW or LexisNexis instead of CELEX. If you are using an NYU computer, the CELEX material is also available through LexisNexis Academic Universe. From Indexes and Databases on the Law Library gateway, follow this path: >Alphabetical> LexisNexis Academic Universe>Legal Research>International Legal Materials>EU Law (CELEX).
The texts of WESTLAW and LexisNexis documents are enhanced with the same cross-references as the documents in CELEX. These include a list of relevant dates (entry into force, etc.), and citations to (1) Treaty articles that are the bases of the act, (2) preparatory acts (documents from the legislative process), (3) acts affected, (4) cases from the European Court of Justice, and (5) national implementing measure for EU directives. If you do not find what you need in WESTLAW or LexisNexis, please consult a librarian to determine if a CELEX search is needed.

Commission of the European Community
As the Union's executive body, the Commission manages policies and negotiates international trade and cooperation agreements. Directorates-General and Services, set up the the internal market and information society policies.

Consolidated Legislation and Index
Via Eur-Lex.

Council of the European Union
Access to Documents: Public Register of Documents, Common Foreign and Security Policy, and Justice and Home Affairs. You will find at the Presidency of the Council of European Union the Treaty of Amsterdam, a Newsroom, General Information, and links to Fundamental Rights , a database on the EU human rights charter.

CURIA - Court of Justice and Court of First Instance
Has unofficial texts (released ahead of the print versions). Under Recent case-law, the texts of cases since mid-1997 are searchable by case number, name, date, words, and broad subjects. Under Numerical access to case-law are cases back to the beginning of the Court, but texts before mid-1997 are not searchable. The following online finding tools are under construction and cover limited years and languages:Research and Documentation; Digest of Community Case-Law; Alphabetical Index of subject matter; Annotations of the judgments (by legal commentators); Recent Case Law; Numerical Access.

ECLAS
The Catalog of the European Commission Libraries. ECLAS lists books, articles (including the articles formerly listed in SCAD), documents, and publications.

eLexPortal.com
It contains current information and full-text EU and national legislation about variations in legislative and regulatory eCommerce matters across the EU. It provides user-tailored answers about eCommerce legislation and regulatory policy applied to specific business activities. In order to access the legal and regulatory texts, go to Regulatory Enquiry Service. To get help on using the Regulatory Enquiry Service, use the Tutorial, found under "eLearning", "Tutorials".

EUROPA
It provides news and activities by sectors of EU activity (agriculture, competition, etc.). You can find texts of or citations to the treaties, legislation in force, legislation in preparation, recent case law, the Directorates-General and EU agencies, and other sources of information. There are links to institutions websites, to official documents, EUR-Lex, Bulletin of the European Union (monthly), General Report (annual), European Council, Presidency Conclusions.

EUR-Lex The portal to European Union law
EUR-Lex is free and does not require a password. As the one-stop portal to EU law, it is a great place to start, but it does not contain all documents for earlier years. EUR-Lex texts of legislation are not enhanced with all the CELEX cross-references to related documents that WESTLAW and Lexis/Nexis provide. EUR-Lex contains treaties, the Official Journal L, C and C-E Series in PDF back to Jan. 1, 1998, Legislation in Force (html, not PDF) accessible through the Directory of Community Legislation in Force; Legislation in preparation, including COM documents and other preparatory documents; Case law: ECJ, plus links to Court of the EFTA and European Court of Human Rights; Parliamentary questions; Documents of public interest, including white papers and green papers. It also provides links to:

Pre-Lex and Oeil for tracking legislation
Other EU document sources, such as the Parliament, the Court of Justice, and websites of Member States

Word searching (click on Help for searching instructions)

Quick=search of plain text words in the documents and web pages in EUR-Lex only
All=search by document number, words, date, and language across all documents or in a file (e.g.,O.J.).
Results lists may include documents not available in EUR-Lex.

EURODICAUTOM
It is the multilingual terminological database of the Translation Service in 11 official languages plus Latin. It contains terms, acronyms and abbreviations of all aspects of the European Union Activities. The interface includes terms of the European Council and the European Parliament. For more information, look at the Terminological Information System of the Council of the European Union (TIS).

Eurostat
The Statistical Office of the European Communities. Its task is to provide statistics that enable comparisons between countries and regions. Learn more about how to find EU statistics from A guide to the EU statistical office. For password information, contact the Reference Librarian.

European Voice
An online weekly newspaper which reports and analyzes the activities of the Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers and also covers European business and industry news. Password Required.

Eurovoc
The multilingual thesaurus used for indexing the documentation of the EU institutions.

European Parliament and EUROPARL
The database contains plenary sessions, verbatim reports (April 1996-); reports (July 1994-);minutes, July 1994-; texts adopted (July 1994-);
Legislative Dossiers.Tracks legislative proposals (1994-) and provides citations to related documents.

European Research Papers Archive (ERPA )
The Archives include over 200 online papers in the field of European integration research, published under the auspices of the following institutions: the Harvard Jean Monnet Chair; the European University Institute (EUI, Florence); the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Societies (Cologne); ARENA (Oslo); the European Integration online Papers (EIoP).

Information Society Project Office
ISPO aims to promote cooperation and development in the various areas of the Information Society. ISPO acts as a bridge builder between Commission Services and external organizations interested in the Information Society.

LAWTEL Main Menu EU & Legal Journals Index
Legal database with fast, easy, intuitive access to the law. Offers a unique range of information from case law to legislation.
•Lawtel EU

PreLex
Contains legislation in preparation on a topic and related preparatory acts. Tracks legislative proposals (1975-) and provides citations to related documents. Links allow the user to reach the electronic available texts, COM documents, Official Journal, Bulletin of the European Union, documents of the European Parliament, press releases.

RAPID
The Spokesman's Service of the European Commission press releases. In order to access, use the username -guest and the password -guest.

SCAD
Contains summaries about major policy areas with legislative follow-up, a list of legislation in force, and citations to national implementing legislation.

Treaty of Amsterdam: A Comprehensive Guide
Could be also found on Europa's (index and treaties) servers. Includes information about the renumbering of existing Treaties by Maastricht and Amsterdam and the citation to treaty articles.

Treaty of Nice
Housed in The Commission database, includes the text, explanatory summaries, ratification status, and background documents for the preparation of the Intergovernmental Conference. The Parliament has a site on the Intergovernmental Conference with background documents. The Council provides background documents for the IGC.