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Cookies

Cookies Policy

To make the websites of the Publications Office of the European Union work properly, we sometimes place small data files called ‘cookies’ on your device.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size and other display preferences) over a period of time, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another.

  • First-party cookies are cookies set by the website you’re visiting. Only that website can read them. In addition, a website might potentially use external services, which also set their own cookies, known as third-party cookies.
  • Persistent cookies are cookies that are saved on your computer and are not deleted automatically when you quit your browser, unlike a session cookie, which is deleted when you quit your browser.

Every time you visit the Publications Office’s websites, you will be prompted to accept or refuse cookies.

Cookies can also be used to establish anonymised statistics about the browsing experience on our sites.

How do we use cookies?

The Publications Office websites mostly use ‘first-party cookies’. These are cookies set and controlled by the Publications Office, not by any external organisations.

However, to view some of our pages, you will have to accept cookies from external organisations.

You can delete or block these cookies, but if you do that, some features of this site may not work as intended. These cookies are used to remember:

  • your display preferences, such as browsing language, contrast colour, font size, device used, search results preferences and notification preferences;
  • your latest visit to the website (for statistical purposes) and the three most recent pages visited (to help our helpdesk if you send a request);
  • if you have agreed (or not) to our use of cookies on this site.

Visitor preferences

These are set by us and only we can read them. They remember if you have agreed to (or refused) this site’s cookie policy.

Name Service Purpose Cookie type and duration EUR-Lex CheckLex
cck1 Cookie consent kit Stores your cookie preferences (so you won’t be asked again) First-party persistent cookie, 6 months

Operational cookies

There are some cookies that we have to include in order for certain web pages to function. For this reason, they do not require your consent. In particular:

  • authentication cookies;
  • technical cookies required by certain IT systems.
Authentication cookies

These are stored when you log in to the Publications Office sites, using our authentication service (EU Login). When you do this, you accept the associated privacy policy.

Name Service Purpose Cookie type and duration EUR-Lex CheckLex
_Secure_ECAS_SESSIONID Identity Management Service Identifies the current Central Authentication Service session First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser
_ECAS_PREFS Identity Management Service Remembers your settings and preferences: user id, user name, acknowledged cookie policy, high contrast mode, privacy mode, view account details after login, last strength selected First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser
Technical cookies
Name Service Purpose Cookie type and duration EUR-Lex CheckLex
AWSALB AWS Registers, which server-cluster is serving the visitor. This is used in context with load balancing, in order to optimize user experience. First-party persistent cookie, 6 days
ELX_SESSIONID EUR-Lex It is a JSESSIONID type of cookie, which in J2EE web application is used in session tracking. Since HTTP is a stateless protocol, there is no way for Web server to relate two separate requests coming from the same client. Session management is a process to track user using cookies. If a Web server is using a cookie for session management, it creates and sends JSESSIONID cookie to the client who sends it back to the server in subsequent HTTP requests. First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser
clientlanguage EUR-Lex Cookie holding the user’s language selection First-party persistent cookie, 30 days
desktopModeOn EUR-Lex Cookie storing the user’s preference when in mobile but he desires to switch to desktop view First-party persistent cookie, 30 days
(stab, #FacetState#, PP#, Procedure#, tab-#, dAoj# etc) EUR-Lex Cookies related to the expand/collapse state of panels First-party persistent cookie, 30 days
experimentalFeaturesActivated EUR-Lex Cookie storing the user’s preferences on the activation/deactivation of experimental features First-party persistent cookie, 30 days
experimentalFeatures EUR-Lex Cookie storing information on which experimental features the user has activated First-party persistent cookie, 30 days

Analytics cookies

We use these purely for internal research on how we can improve the service we provide for all our users.

The cookies simply assess how you interact with our website — as an anonymous user (the data gathered does not identify you personally).

Also, this data is not shared with any third parties or used for any other purpose. The anonymised statistics could be shared with contractors working on communication projects under contractual agreement with the Publications Office.

However, you are free to refuse these types of cookies via the cookie banner you’ll see on the first page you visit.

Name Service Purpose Cookie type and duration EUR-Lex CheckLex
_pk_id# Corporate web analytics service, based on Piwik-PRO open source software Recognises website visitors (anonymously – no personal information is collected on the user) First-party persistent cookie, 13 months
_pk_ses _pk_cvar _pk_hsr Corporate web analytics service, based on Piwik-PRO open source software Short lived cookies used to temporarily store data for the visit First-party persistent cookie, 30 minutes
_pk_ref# Corporate web analytics service, based on Piwik-PRO open source software Used to store the attribution information, the referrer initially used to visit the website First-party persistent cookie, 6 months
ppms_privacy_ Corporate web analytics service, based on Piwik-PRO open source software Stores visitor`s consent to data collection and usage. First-party persistent cookie, 365 days (configurable) or 30 minutes (for anonymous tracking)

Third-party cookies

Some of our pages display content from external providers, such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and links to websites managed by EU countries.

To view this third-party content, you first have to accept their specific terms and conditions. This includes their cookie policies, which we have no control over.

But if you do not view this content, no third-party cookies will be installed on your device.

Third-party providers on Publications Office websites

These third-party services are outside of the control of the Publications Office. Providers may, at any time, change their terms of service, purpose and use of cookies, etc.

Private data

The cookie-related information is not used to identify you personally and the pattern data is fully under our control. These cookies are not used for any purpose other than those described here.

How can you manage cookies?

You can manage/delete cookies as you wish — for details, see aboutcookies.org

Removing cookies from your device

You can delete all cookies that are already on your device by clearing the browsing history of your browser. This will remove all cookies from all websites you have visited.

Be aware though that you may also lose some saved information (e.g. saved login details, site preferences).

Managing site-specific cookies

For more detailed control over site-specific cookies, check the privacy and cookie settings in your preferred browser.

Blocking cookies

You can set most modern browsers to prevent any cookies being placed on your device, but you may then have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site/page. And some services and functionalities may not work properly at all (e.g. logging in to your profile).