European Legislation Identifier (ELI)
SUMMARY OF:
Council conclusions inviting the introduction of the European Legislation Identifier (ELI)
WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE CONCLUSIONS?
Legislation is widely available online and accessible in various digital formats. However, the way in which legal information is organised and classified varies across different legal systems. The conclusions address this issue by endorsing the European Legislation Identifier (ELI), an initiative to ensure that citizens and legal professionals get improved access to information on legislation, be it at regional, national or EU level.
ELI makes it easier to access and share this information, thus contributing to the EU’s common area of freedom, security and justice.
KEY POINTS
The conclusions invite EU countries to adopt the ELI system, so that information on EU and national legislation is described in a harmonised way across legislation systems. This will improve discovery, access and reuse of information about legislation for citizens and professional users.
How does ELI work?
ELI is based on:
The ELI system was developed to standardise legal communication to promote interchange and to enhance interoperability between legal information systems at EU and national level, while maintaining the specificities of each country’s legal and legislative system.
What should EU countries do in order to introduce ELI?
The introduction of ELI is optional, voluntary and gradual. In order to adopt ELI, legislation publishers should:
ELI implementers are invited to appoint a national ELI coordinator and to share information on their respective ELI implementations. This information is to be made publicly available on the ELI website hosted in the EUR-Lex portal: http://eurlex.europa.eu/eli.
2017 Council conclusions
In November 2017, the Council adopted a new set of conclusions on the ELI building on the conclusions of 2012.
These conclusions provide a progress report on the ELI initiative:
The conclusions call on the Council working party on e-law, to take a series of measures aimed at driving forward the ELI system and in particular on:
An annex contains the main elements of information and references:
BACKGROUND
For more information, see:
KEY TERMS
MAIN DOCUMENT
Council conclusions inviting the introduction of the European Legislation Identifier (ELI) (OJ C 325, 26.10.2012, pp. 3-11)
RELATED DOCUMENTS
Council conclusions of 6 November 2017 on the European Legislation Identifier (OJ C 441, 22.12.2017, pp. 8-12)
Decision 2009/496/EC, Euratom of the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 26 June 2009 on the organisation and operation of the Publications Office of the European Union (OJ L 168, 30.6.2009, pp. 41-47)
Successive amendments to Decision 2009/496/EC, Euratom have been incorporated in the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.
last update 09.02.2018