EUR-Lex Access to European Union law

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About EUR-Lex

What is EUR-Lex?

EUR-Lex is your online gateway to EU Law. It provides the official and most comprehensive access to EU legal documents. It is available in all of the EU’s 24 official languages and is updated daily.

Who runs EUR-Lex?

EUR-Lex is run by the Publications Office of the European Union.

What can you find on EUR-Lex?

You can access the following EU legal documents:

Types of documents in EUR-Lex


Each document in EUR-Lex is enriched with detailed information such as relations with other legal documents, case-law interpretations, dates of adoption/entry into force/applicability, legal basis, amending acts, etc.

EUR-Lex gives you access to all the editions of the Official Journal of the European Union (Official Journal) from the very first one of December 1952. Since 1 July 2013, the electronic edition of the Official Journal published on EUR-Lex is authentic and produces legal effects.

It also helps you to understand EU Law by providing:

  • the main stages of the procedures leading to the adoption of legal acts
  • consolidated texts which combine the initial legal acts and all their amendments into single documents
  • over 2000 Summaries of EU legislation that explain EU legislation in a plain, easy-to-read and concise way.

How to use EUR-Lex?

EUR-Lex offers a wide range of options to search within its various collections as well as numerous functions catering to different needs.

For instance, you can easily access any editions of the Official Journal; search by typing free text or combining different criteria. You can also view up to three linguistic versions of the same document simultaneously.

Furthermore, you can create a user account to customise the website to your specific needs and benefit from extra features.

Learn more by watching our e-learning module and by visiting our help pages.

Help us to improve EUR-Lex

We aim at improving EUR-Lex constantly to provide you with the best possible service. Send us your comments and suggestions by filling in our feedback survey.

You can also contact our help desk: EURLEX-HELPDESK@publications.europa.eu

Leaflet ‘EUR-Lex - your access to EU law’