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About EU law

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

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

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.