The Libraries are an official depository of the European Union (EU)

The EU currently has 25 members: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom.

• Europe: European Commission's principal server, offering general information on the European Union's goals and policies. Use the How to Find Information on Europe to navigate this complex web site. Highlights of Europe include:
  • EU Institutions an introductory overview of the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission (and its Directorates General), the Court of Justice, and other institutions. Refer to the Alphabetical index for subject access to the responsibilities of the Directorates General.
  • European Union in the World an information portal on the external relations of the EU with information on foreign policies, enlargement [of the EU], humanitarian aid, external trade, development policy, and external cooperation programs.
  • Euro Information on the Euro, the European Union single currency.
  • Official Documents including Green and White Papers, reports, communications, memorandums, action plans, guidelines, and work programs, the Bulletin of the European Union, and the RAPID press release database.
  • Statistical Office of the European Union (EUROSTAT) includes statistical information on the European Union.
• European Environment Agency
• European Parliament provides access to information about the activities of the parliament and other information.
• European Union: Delegation of the European Commission to the United States offers information about acquiring standards, researching business in the European Union, the relationship between the European Union and the United States, and other information. See especially:
  • Alphabetical Index to EU Subjects a subject index to information on Web servers of the European Union.
  • Accessing European Union Information--a guide to researching the EU, its laws, legislation, and case law.
• Office for Official Publications of the European Communities:
  • EUR-Lex Access to issues of the Official Journal C and Official Journal L from 1998 to the present, Treaties, Directory of Community Legislation in Force, commission proposals (preparatory acts), and case law.
  • TED--Tenders Electronic Daily The electronic version of the Supplement to the Official Journal that contains details on public contracts of the EU and related institutions.
• CORDIS: Information on Research and Development sponsored and supported by the European Union.
• Information Society Project Office supporting and promoting public and private actions in the field of the information society with information on telecommunications and audiovisual media information technology, and related topics.
• Market Access Database - European Union this Database is a service provided by DG Trade, European Commission. It is free, interactive, easy to use and provides information about market access conditions in non-EU countries; trade flows between the EU and non-EU countries; and market access related studies referring to geographical areas, selected business sectors or relevant horizontal issues.

The Eurostat website offers a number of key statistics online.

Law, Case Law and Proposed Legislation:

ECLAS (bibliographic databases) and Accessing European Union Information (a research guide) are essential tools for legal research. See also The ABC of Community Law by Dr. Klaus-Dieter Borchardt.

• EUR-Lex--a single entry point to the complete collections of EU legal texts, including CELEX, PreLex, Oeil, and other sources. Provides separate search pages for the Official Journal, Treaties, Legislation, Legislation in Preparation, Case-Law, and Documents of Public Interest. Browse or search collections by date, publication number, page number, or keyword in the full text. In addition, the site includes a glossary of terms, an overview of EU legal procedure, and descriptions of the key institutions. The following sites are included:
  • CELEX "a comprehensive and authoritative information source on European Community law. It offers multilingual, full text coverage of a wide range of legal acts including the founding treaties, binding and non-binding legislation, opinions and resolutions issued by the EU Institutions and consultative bodies and the case law of the European Court of Justice." Materials in CELEX were originally published in the print version of the Official Journal (OJ). This database should only be used to search for documents prior to December 31, 2004, for more recent material use EUR-Lex.
  • PreLex "the database on inter-institutional procedures [that] follows the major stages of the decision-making process between the Commission and the other institutions." It includes information on Commission proposals from 1975 to the present, with citations to COM documents, the Official Journal, the Bulletin of the European Union, documents of the European Parliament, press releases. The database includes links to electronic versions of recent materials.
  • Court of Justice (ECJ) and Court of First Instance of the European Communities includes institutional overview, diary, daily proceedings, and recent judgments in full text.
    • Note: The European Union has renumbered all of its founding treaties. This has implications for finding cited provisions of the treaties and locating references in CELEX. See the ECJ press release which discusses renumbering of the treaties and the uniform system of citation adopted by the Court in its recent judgments.
  • European Parliament:
    • Legislative Observatory A database which includes status of legislation in progress, with commentary on parliamentary actions, citations to documents, and selected full text documents.
    • Debates of the European Parliament from 1996 and forward are available online as Verbatim Report of Proceedings. Consult the "Read Me First" for an explanation of the conditions of release. Debate is first transcribed in the so-called "Rainbow" edition which may be edited and corrected before final official publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities (Annex): Debates of the European Parliament.
    • Indexes of Debates--European Parliament (1984-1999) The index contains separate lists of adopted texts, debates, subjects, index of names, and addressee for each resolution. Available as .pdf files. To interpret the index, read the "Note to the reader."
• SCAD PLus includes a calendar of meetings and explanatory information about EU policies and programs.
• Treaties:
  • Amsterdam: A New Treaty for Europe: the text of the treaty of European Union in various formats, citizen's guide, and consolidated versions of earlier European Union Treaties. See also the Selected Instruments of the European Union.
  • Treaty of Nice "The Treaty of Nice marks a new stage in the preparations for enlargement of the European Union to include countries of central and eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Baltic. This Treaty, which amends the existing Treaties, will enter into force once it has been ratified by all the Member States, by parliamentary vote or referendum." Signed by heads of government on Feb. 26, 2001. The site provides the text of the treaty, background information, ratification status, and other information.

Guides and Fact Sheets

• The ABC of Community Law by Dr. Klaus-Dieter Borchardt. Written for the layperson.
• Accessing European Union Information, an excellent overview of the legal and legislative processes and their documentation. Includes information about the official electronic databases and Web sites of the European Union.
• Europe from A to Z a pdf version of the popular overview.
• European Parliament Fact Sheets provide "non-specialists with a general view of the process of European integration".
• European Standards and the Role of the EU
• Guide to European Legal Databases includes sections on the EU and individual European nations.
• Guide to Materials in Our Collection contains call numbers and locations for materials in the CU collections.
• Inside Europe--the BBC guide to the European Union. Includes a glossary of terms.
• Lawyers Guide to Doing Business in the EU by Pierre Bos, Esq. Provided by Heiros Gamos, a comprehensive legal site.
• Standards Setting in the European Union an 85 page document in .pdf format. From the U.S. National Institute of Standards.
• State Department Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs

Current Awareness:

• EU Business includes information on EU law, business developments, finance, EU programs by industry sector, current awareness for Commission proposals, progress reports on draft legislation, country-specific information, information on doing business in EU countries, and other features.
• EU RAPID Official database for press releases of the European Union.
• European Voice Online a weekly newspaper that includes the top ten stories of the week and a diary of upcoming events. Additional information available with a subscription.
• Jean Monnet Table of Contents Service "provides access to the Tables of Contents, sometimes also abstracts, of journals relevant in European Integration research. Currently it covers more than 50 journals published in eight languages and 13 countries."
• ProQuest CU includes Wall Street Journal Europe in full text.

Directories:

• IDEA Electronic Directory of the European Institutions

Glossaries:

• EURODICAUTOM Multilingual Dictionary of EU terminology

Indexes and Catalogs:

• Alphabetical Index to EU Subjects a subject index to information on Web servers of the European Union from the European Union: Delegation of the European Commission to the United States
• ECLAS--library catalog of the Central Library of the European Commission. The catalog includes citations to articles published in periodicals, official publications, international documents, internet resources, full-text publications, and other materials from a variety of sources.
• Indexes of Debates--European Parliament (1984-1999) The index contains separate lists of adopted texts, debates, subjects, index of names, and addressee for each resolution. Available as .pdf files. To interpret the index, read the "Note to the reader.
• The European Commission recommends the following tools to locate information: EUR-Lex and CELEX for community legislation (Sector A), EUR-OP for official publications (Sector B), and ECLAS for articles from periodicals (Sector C).

Additional Sources of Information

• European Foreign Policy Bulletin Online "This full text database brings together the documents issued by the European Union in the area of foreign policy since 1985". Brows able and searchable.
• European Journal of International Law
• Eurybase "database on the education systems in the European Union and in the countries of the European Economic Area."
• European Monetary Institute Includes speeches, policy papers, links to national banks, and other information.
• European Research Papers Archive. "online working paper series in the field of European integration research". Provides a gateway to :
  • European Integration Online Papers, a peer reviewed series on European Integration.
  • Harvard Jean Monnet Working Papers Series
  • Other materials.
• Taric s.a. Centro de Documentación y Gestión de Comercio Exterior provides access to the tariff schedules of the European Union. Search by word or tariff code. Although much of the site is only available in Spanish, the site provides an English edition of the tariff database.