About this website
EUR-Lex provides direct free access to European Union law. Here you can consult the Official Journal of the European Union as well as the treaties, legislation, case-law and legislative proposals. You can also use the extensive search facilities available on EUR-Lex.
Content of the website
- Official Journal of the European Union online
- Collections
- Research
- Direct access
- About European law
- Topical questions
The website offers direct access to the latest issues of the L (Legislation) and C (Information and Notices) series of the Official Journal, together with the previous 10 days’ issues. Entering the date and the publication reference, allows direct access to a particular issue of the Official Journal. Lastly, there is the possibility of consulting the issues of the Official Journal made available online since 1998.
The texts published in the Official Journal, including texts prior to 1998, can also be accessed using the search functions provided on the website.
The texts are arranged in collections – treaties, international agreements, legislation in force, legislation in preparation, case-law, parliamentary questions – which can be accessed via hyperlinks. Within each collection it is possible to access texts in force and/or texts recently adopted or published. The user chooses the desired documents by scanning the proposed structured lists.
For access to the whole body of EU legal texts, including those that are no longer in force, the site provides users with powerful search tools for the documentary holdings in CELEX (Communitatis europeae lex), the computerised interinstitutional documentation system for Community law.
Besides the treaties, international agreements and secondary and supplementary legislation, the documentary holdings in CELEX also extend to documents that provide useful additional information for a thorough understanding of Community law, such as preparatory documents, case-law and parliamentary questions.
There are two search modes: the simple search interface offers users a choice of a large number of search criteria and guides them through the search procedure. The ‘expert search’ interface offers professional users a wider range of search and display options.
For the sake of openness, the website provides direct links to major documents and documentation sources, including the budget of the European Union and the institutions’ registers.
For visitors who are less familiar with European questions, the website provides information on the institutions and Community law to make it easier for them to find the required data. It also includes explanations for the instruments that play a part in the production of Community legislation.
The most recently published texts are highlighted. Visitors to the site are offered dossiers that gather together the legal texts on topical subjects. Finally, a monthly newsletter draws attention to the latest news and announces forthcoming developments.
Main advantages of the system
Free access: access to the site is completely free and not subject to any conditions. It is now even easier to view
- the daily issues of the Official Journal of the European Union ,
- the special editions with the secondary legislation in force on 1 May 2004 (in Czech, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Hungarian, Maltese, Polish, Slovakian, Slovenian) and 1 January 2007 (Bulgarian, Romanian),
- the treaties,
- the case law (Court of Justice, Court of First Instance, Civil Service Tribunal),
- the texts of legislation in force
- and the latest proposals and communications of the European Commission
Topicality: the site is updated daily. Texts recently published or adopted and selected texts on topical subjects are highlighted.
Rapid availability: documents entered into the system are available immediately and can be retrieved using words, the Official Journal publication reference or the document’s natural number as search criteria.
Reference documentation: the content of the database goes back to the origins of the European Coal and Steel Community and amounts to some 2 300 000 documents in a number of languages. Most of the documents have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union and/or the Reports of cases of the Court of Justice, but the database also includes other documents that the originating institution considers to be in the public domain.
Multilingualism: documents are available in principle in all the official languages. It is now much easier to change languages by using the language choice bar at the top right hand corner of the screen. English is the default language should a screen not be available in the selected language.
Openness: besides access to the legal instruments published in the Official Journal of the European Union that are incorporated into the CELEX documentary database, the site provides direct links to major documents and documentation sources, including the Budget of the European Union and the institutions’ registers.
Simplicity of use: the site offers users easy access to documents on the basis of predefined lists or via assisted search functions.
Future developments
Full linguistic cover will be gradually extended to all screens and editorial content.
LexAlert the automatic document notification service will be opened.
Different types of acts will be gradually added to the searchable database.
More browsing possibilities will be offered to the user.