European Union

By Hester Swift, Foreign and International Law Librarian, August 2007. Updated May 2010.

The Official Journal

Competition decisions

International agreements

Introduction

The European Union (EU) developed from the three European Communities which were founded in the 1950s: the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). It became the European Union under the Maastricht Treaty of 1992; this treaty provided that the European Communities should remain in existence as part of the EU, but renamed the European Economic Community as the European Community (EC). The ECSC was wound up in 2002. The EC was subsumed into the European Union in December 2009, but Euratom continues to exist.

From the original six member states of the 1950s, the EU has grown to a total of twenty-seven member states today. The UK joined in 1973.

The EU has its own courts: the Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance (recently renamed the"General Court") and the Civil Service Tribunal. Its legislative and policy-making bodies are the Council of the European Union (or Council of Ministers), the European Parliament and the European Commission. Its official publisher is the Publications Office of the European Union, formerly the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library has a substantial collection of European Union materials of legal interest, from the 1950s to the present day. It is not, however, an EU depository; larger collections of EU official publications can be found at EU Documentation Centres (EDCs). The University of London EDCs are at the London School of Economics (British Library of Political and Economic Science) and Queen Mary.

At IALS, most - but not all - of the printed EU materials are located on the third floor of the Library. Several databases containing EU documentation are also available.

The Official Journal

The Official Journal of the European Union is the EU’s official gazette. It originated with the Coal and Steel Community's Official Journal (1952-58), then became the Official Journal of the European Communities. In February 2003 the title changed to Official Journal of the European Union. It is usually referred to as the OJ.

The OJ is published in all the languages of the member states. The English edition began in 1973, when the UK and Ireland joined.

There are now three series of the Official Journal:

The L series: Official Journal of the European Union: Legislation, or OJ L. Began in 1968; includes secondary legislation (directives, regulations and so on) and some primary legislation (treaties).

The C series: Official Journal of the European Union: Information and Notices, or OJ C (C from the French sub-title, Communications et Informations). Began in 1968; includes most primary legislation, European Parliament minutes, court notices, the Council of the EU’s common positions and various other types of document. Since 31 August 1999 the C series has included irregular electronic-only issues, cited as OJ C E ( for example OJ C 321E). There is also an OJ C A sub-series, which contains notices such as job advertisements.

The S series: Official Journal of the European Union: Supplement, or OJ S. This consists of public procurement notices. It started in 1978 and has been electronic-only since July 1998.

OJ citations usually follow the pattern OJ L 12, 16.1.2001 p. 1–23 or OJ C 70, 27/3/2007 p. 9-12. However, documents published in the C series are sometimes cited in the form 2000/C 264/03, meaning OJ C, 2000, issue 264, item three (not page three).

Print and microfiche holdings

IALS has the Official Journal from 1952 to date, excluding the S series. There is a monthly index, with annual cumulations.

English edition: L series 1973 onwards, in both print and microfiche formats

C series 1973 to 1995 on microfiche; in printed format 1996 onwards

As well as the ordinary English OJ, above, we have the English Special edition, consisting of all Community law in force when the UK and Ireland joined in 1973, translated into English.

French edition: IALS has the Journal officiel des Communautés européennes / Journal officiel de l'Union européenne (cited as JO) from 1958 to 2008. From 1978 to 2008, it is on microfiche only. We also have the complete series of the Journal officiel de la Communauté Européene du charbon et de l'acier (Official Journal of the European Coal and Steel Community), 1952 to 1958.

Electronic sources

The EUR-Lex website provides PDF versions of each issue of the OJ from 1998 onwards. In addition, individual legislative instruments ( the contents of the L series) are available back to 1952, although not presented in the form of OJ issues.

The Justis Celex, Westlaw and Lexis Library databases also have the contents of the L series back to 1952, but not in the form of OJ issues. All three databases are available via the IALS Electronic Law Library (note access restrictions).

Justis and Westlaw provide the OJ C series back to 1990 (on Westlaw it comes under Information and Notices). Lexis Library has it back to 2000, under EU Materials.

A five-year archive of the OJ S series is available free on the Tenders Electronic Daily website.

Legislation

Primary legislation: the treaties

The EU's primary legislation consists of treaties concerning the structure and functions of the EU, plus the accession treaties admitting new member states. The original, founding treaties were:

Treaty Establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) - signed in 1951, in force 1952, expired 2002.

Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) - signed in 1957, in force 1958.

Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) - signed in 1957, in force 1958. Renamed Treaty Establishing the European Community (EC Treaty, or TEC) as from November 1993, then renamed Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) as from December 2009. Known informally as the Treaty of Rome. N.B. The articles of this treaty have been renumbered twice, by the Treaties of Amsterdam and Lisbon; article-number conversion tables are annexed to these treaties.

Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty), signed in 1992, in force 1993. Founded the European Union and transformed the European Economic Community (EEC) into the European Community (EC). Sometimes known as “the EU Treaty” or TEU. N.B. The Treaties of Amsterdam and Lisbon renumbered the articles of this treaty as well as those of the Treaty of Rome (see above).
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Other primary legislation includes the Single European Act (1986), the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and the Treaty of Lisbon (2007) . Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2009; see Europa website for further details.

Electronic sources of primary legislation
The most convenient and up-to-date source of the treaties is the EU’s own legal website, EUR-Lex. (However, the EU does not officially deem electronic texts to be authentic - see “Important legal notice” on the home page.) Both original and consolidated versions are available for most of the treaties, including a consolidation of the Treaties of Rome and Maastricht as amended by the Treaty Lisbon, published in March 2010.

The treaties can also be found on Westlaw (EU screen), Justis.com (EU screen, Celex drop-down menu) and Lexis Library (Legislation screen, select International Legislation, then EU Treaties). These databases are all in the IALS Electronic Law Library (note access restrictions).

Printed sources of primary legislation
Original text: The treaties are published in the Official Journal (see above), some in the L series, some in the C series (see EUR-Lex for their OJ references). Many of them come out as EU Publications Office monographs too; IALS stocks these treaty monographs as well as the OJ.

The EU treaties also appear as UK government publications: shortly after signature, they are published in the European Communities sub-series of command papers (except the treaties signed by the UK in 1972, immediately before accession, which are in the Miscellaneous sub-series). Once in force, they are published in the United Kingdom Treaty Series. IALS has the Treaty Series and European Communities series; selected items from the Miscellaneous series are also held, including the original Treaty of Rome and the UK’s accession treaty.

Consolidated text: Consolidated editions of the treaties are produced by the Publications Office, as monographs and also in the OJ. The monograph versions include the key treaties only; they have appeared under various titles over the years, such as European Union: selected instruments taken from the treaties (latest edition 2003) and Consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community (latest edition 2006). IALS has both the OJ and monograph versions.

The latest consolidations of the Treaty on European Union and Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union appeared in Official Journal C 83 of 30.3.2010.

Blackstone's EU treaties & legislation, published by Oxford University Press, is a convenient source of consolidated treaties. It is in the Short Loan Collection at IALS. The current edition (20th, 2009) does not reflect the changes made by the Treaty of Lisbon, but a 21st edition is in preparation, with an estimated publication date of August 2010.

Annotated consolidated versions of the treaties can be found in:

Smit & Herzog on the law of the European Union (Newark, NJ : LexisNexis Matthew Bender, 2005 - ); in IALS.

Encyclopedia of European Union Law: Constitutional Texts (London, Sweet and Maxwell, 2001); in IALS.

Secondary legislation

The main types of secondary legislation are directives, regulations and decisions. Their reference numbers take the following forms:

Directives: year/number, e.g. Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste

Regulations: number/year, e.g. Regulation (EC) no. 6/2002...on Community designs

Decisions: year/number, e.g. 85/648/EEC, Council Decision of 19 December 1985 on import quotas…

Note that two-digit years were used before 1999. EC and EEC in the examples above indicate which treaty provides the legal basis for each instrument, i.e. the EEC/EC Treaty (Treaty of Rome).

Printed sources of secondary legislation

Original: The official source of secondary legislation is the printed edition of the Official Journal of the European Union, L series. As mentioned above, IALS has the ordinary Official Journal in both English and French, as well as the English Special Edition.

Consolidated: IALS sources include the following:

Blackstone's EU treaties & legislation: selection of consolidated secondary legislation.
Encyclopedia of European Community law: Community Secondary Legislation, a Sweet and Maxwell looseleaf (IALS volumes not updated beyond 2006).
Subject-based collections, such as Blackstone's UK and EC Competition Documents; see Catalogue for other titles.

Electronic sources of secondary legislation
All secondary legislation is available on the EU’s own EUR-Lex website. The “Important legal notice” on the home page says “Only European Union legislation published in paper editions of the Official Journal of the European Union is deemed authentic”, but EUR-Lex is nevertheless a valuable research resource.

When you search for legislation on EUR-Lex, it usually comes up in its original form. To check whether it has been amended, click on "Bibliographic Notice", and scroll down to "Amended By". (The “Amended By” sub-heading is absent if there have been no amendments.)

In addition to the lists of amendments, EUR-Lex provides consolidated amended versions of most – but not all – secondary legislation. N.B. These versions do not say if the instrument has been repealed; always check the list of amendments in the Bibliographic Notice which accompanies the original version (see above). Both current and historic consolidations are available.

Secondary legislation is also on the following subscription databases (see IALS Electronic Law Library):

Westlaw: EU screen; original text; for lists of amendments, click on References

Justis: EU screen; original text; for amendments, click on Outline and scroll down

Lexis Library: original and consolidated texts; go to Legislation screen and click on International Legislation; amendments are listed towards the end of each original instrument; consolidated versions are available via the Browse link on the International Legislation page.

Tracking the legislative process

To check the progress of ongoing EU legislation, use the European Commission’s PreLex website and the European Parliament’s Legislative Observatory. These are searchable databases tracking legislative proposals until they become law. Links to legislative and other documents are provided, for example reports of parliamentary committees, Council common positions and press releases. It is best to look at both websites, as one may be more up-to-date than the other.

Implementation of directives

Directives are an indirect form of legislation: each member state has to implement them in its own law. The UK normally implements directives by means of statutory instruments, although occasionally an act of Parliament is used.

Details of implementing legislation are given on EUR-Lex, Westlaw and Justis, but not on Lexis Library. On EUR-Lex, search for the directive, click on “Bibliographic Notice”, scroll down to “Display the national implementing measures” and click on the “MNE” link (standing for "mesures nationales d'exécution"). On Westlaw, search for the directive, then click on National Measures. On Justis, select Legislation, search for the directive and scroll down.

If the implementation entry says “NO REFERENCE AVAILABLE”, try the following sources, available at IALS:

European Current Law (see Digests) - lists implementing legislation for all member states.

Butterworths EC legislation implementator (part of Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments) - UK implementation only.

The web domain of the member state in which you are interested, for example .gov.uk or .de (Google's Advanced Search allows you to specify a particular domain). This is especially useful for very recent or forthcoming implementation, information about which may be posted on the website of the government department responsible. To translate the title of a directive in order to search foreign websites, look it up on EUR-Lex, then use the language codes across the top of the screen to change to the desired language.

The experimental N-Lex website can be used to search the national legislation websites of most of the member states for implementing measures; it provides a multi-lingual thesaurus with which to translate key words.

Commercial Laws of Europe - this series reproduces selected laws of EU member states, in translation, with an emphasis on those which implement EU directives. Some of the annual volumes (from about 1993 to 2005) have tables of implemented legislation, but these are not cumulative.

Law reports

Cases at the Court of Justice (ECJ) almost always have two stages: the Advocate-General’s opinion, then the judgment (usually a few months later). Cases at the Court of First Instance (CFI, recently renamed the "General Court") and Civil Service Tribunal only have one stage, the judgment.

Case numbers have alphabetic prefixes to denote the court, for example:

ECJ: C-14/89 (Cour de justice)
CFI/General Court: T-220/95 (Tribunal de première instance)
Civil Service Tribunal: F-14/06 ( Tribunal de la fonction publique)

Until 1989, when there was only one court (the Court of Justice), case numbers consisted simply of a number and the year, for example 290/84.

Printed sources
The official series of EU law reports is Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance. It is usually known as the European Court Reports and cited as ECR. The French abbreviation,“Rec.”, is sometimes seen in English-language sources (Recueil de la jurisprudence de la Cour...). The series is published in all the languages of the EU.

Until mid-2004, the ECR published every case, in contrast to the UK's selective law reporting practice. Since then, less important cases - such as uncontested infringement proceedings - have been omitted, although brief details are listed at the back of the ECR. The full text of these unpublished cases can be found on the Courts’ website, Curia (in the original language only). Top of page

Since the creation of the Court of First Instance in 1989, the ECR has been divided into two sections: section I covers the ECJ and Section II the CFI . Citations take the form [1991] ECR II-469 (meaning 1991, part II, starting at page 469).

IALS has the English ECR from 1954 onwards, comprising the successive titles Reports of cases before the Court of Justice of the European Coal and Steel Community, Reports of cases before the Court, and Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance. We also have the French edition, from 1954 to 2003.

There is a delay of two to three years between a judgment and its publication in the ECR. However, case summaries are published in the Official Journal C series a few months after the judgment. Selected EU cases also appear in commercially-published series of law reports, often before they are available in the ECR. These series include the Common Market Law Reports (CMLR), European Commercial Cases (ECC), European Community Cases (CEC) and All England Law Reports: European Cases (All ER (EC)). IALS subscribes to all of these titles.

Electronic sources

All cases heard by the EU courts are available on the EUR-Lex website. (As with legislation, a legal notice on the home page warns that electronic texts are not seen as authentic.)

The Courts’ website, Curia, also provides all EU cases. There are two different sources of cases on this site, both found under “Case Law” on the home page:

“Search Form “ - searchable database from 17 June 1997 onwards, updated daily; the best source for very recent cases.

“Numerical access to the case law” - indexes by case number, covering all registered cases, whether they have been heard or not, with status information (e.g. pending, removed from the Register). There are links to the full text and to related court notices. Updated daily.

EU cases are also on Westlaw, Justis and Lexis Library. To find them on Lexis, go to the Cases screen, then click on International Cases.

Competition decisions

The two main types of EU competition case are antitrust investigations and merger scrutinies. Although often known as “cases”, they are not usually heard by courts: antitrust cases are typically dealt with by either national competition authorities or the European Commission, while mergers are scrutinised by the European Commission.

Competition cases are assigned reference numbers. These often start with “IV”, “COMP”, or “M” (for example IV/30.717, COMP/38.477, M.1537), but a variety of other prefixes are also used.

The first place to look when trying to find information about a specific competition case is the website of the Commission’s Competition Directorate-General (see “Electronic Sources”, below).

Printed sources

The Official Journal C series publishes notices about various stages of a competition case, for example, when the Commission decides to clear a merger after its initial scrutiny. The OJ C also publishes general notices and guidelines about competition procedure.

The Official Journal L series publishes some types of final competition decision, for example Commission Decision of 5 December 2001 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 of the EC Treaty (Case IV/37.614/F3 PO/Interbrew and Alken-Maes), OJ L 200, 07.08.2003, p. 59-84.

The Report on Competition Policy, published annually by the European Commission, is a survey of each year’s competition activities. It includes some information about individual cases that is not published in the OJ: for example, it lists cases closed by “comfort letter” (a feature of the pre-May 2004 competition regime). IALS has the Report from its first issue (1971) onwards.

The Common Market Law Reports: Antitrust Reports, published by Sweet and Maxwell, publishes Commission decisions, related press releases, notices and court decisions.

The EC Merger Control Reporter, a looseleaf work of more than 20 volumes, published by Kluwer, includes merger decisions (with commentary), legislation, notices, guidelines, court judgments and agreements with non-EU parties such as the United States. It has a chronological index and an index of party names. In IALS.

Electronic sources

The website of the Commission’s Competition Directorate-General (DG COMP) brings together many different types of information about competition cases, such as legislation, rules, guidelines, the Report on Competition Policy and details of individual cases (including notices not published elsewhere).

EUR-Lex, Justis, Westlaw and Lexis Library may be used to search for competition notices and decisions. It is best to search both EU legislation and the OJ C, in order to find all the available information.

European Commission press releases may provide information about competition decisions that have not been published in the OJ. They can be found either on the DG COMP website or the general press release website, Rapid.

The European Competition Network coordinates enforcement of EC competition rules by the member states’ national competition authorities and the European Commission. Its website provides background information, legislation and links to the national competition authorities’ websites.

COM documents

COM documents, often known as “COM docs”, are a series of publications produced by the European Commission for the attention of other EU institutions, such as the Council of the EU or the European Parliament. They have reference numbers prefixed “COM” (standing for “Commission”), for example COM (2000) 529. They include numerous different types of publication, such as proposals for legislation, green papers, white papers and reports on the implementation of policy. Printed COM documents ceased publication in April 2003; the series is now electronic-only.

Printed sources

IALS has a small number of printed COM documents of legal interest. They are catalogued individually; most are kept at FOL GO1.A1.J.45, but a few are at different classmarks (refer to Catalogue).

As well as being published separately, COM documents were reproduced in the Official Journal C series until 2003. Note that proposals for legislation - a type of COM doc - appear in the OJ C without the explanatory memorandum that is found in the original document.

Electronic sources

EUR-Lex website: COM documents from 1999 onwards (click on “Preparatory acts”, or use Simple Search). EUR-Lex has been the official source of COM documents since they ceased print publication. Top of page

Archive of European Integration: provided by the University of Pittsburgh, this website includes the full text of many COM documents which are too old to be found online elsewhere. It is particularly useful for green and white papers and well-known reports.

Justis: the “Proposals” section of the Celex database includes all types of COM document, not just proposals (despite its name). They are available in full from around the mid-1990s onwards; before that, only brief details are given.

Westlaw: includes the full text of COM documents from around the mid-1990s onwards, in the "Preparatory Acts ” file.

Lexis Library: COM docs are available from around the mid-1990s onwards. To find them, go to Legislation page, click on International Legislation and select EU Materials from the Sources drop-down menu.

International agreements

The EU makes agreements with non-EU countries and international organisations. It also makes agreements between its own member states, for example double-taxation agreements. These agreements are a type of treaty, but should not be confused with the EU’s primary legislation (the Treaty of Rome, the Maastricht Treaty and so on).

Printed sources

International agreements are published in the Official Journal L series. Most of them also appear in the European Communities sub-series of the UK Treaty Series (held at IALS).

Electronic sources

International agreements are on EUR-Lex (use Simple Search and select Legislation); Justis (EU screen, click on Data Sources, select EU External Agreements from Celex menu); Westlaw (under Legislation); and Lexis Library (Legislation screen, click on International Legislation, select EU Materials).

The Council of the European Union’s Treaty Office provides an Agreements Database on its website. It is updated daily and includes dates of signature, approval and entry into force, details of reservations or declarations and the full text of each agreement. The European Commission’s Treaty Office has a similar database, the main difference being that it provides a summary of each agreement as well as the full text.

Books

IALS has a large collection of books on many different aspects of European Union law. Most, but not all, are found on the third floor (refer to Catalogue). Recent titles include:

Hofmann, H. C. H., and Türk., A. H., Legal challenges in EU administrative law : towards an integrated administration, 2009

Steiner, J. and Woods, L., EU Law, 10th ed., 2009

Jack, B., Agriculture and EU environmental law, 2009

Kapteyn, P. J. G., and VerLoren van Themaat, Pieter, The law of the European Union and the European Communities with reference to changes to be made by the Lisbon Treaty, 2008

Kochenov, D., EU enlargement and the failure of conditionality : pre-accession conditionality in the fields of democracy and the rule of law, 2008

Psychogiopoulou, E., The integration of cultural considerations in EU law and policies, 2008

Andreangeli, A., EU competition enforcement and human rights, 2008

Bibliographies

ECLAS, the web catalogue of the European Commission’s Central Library, gives details of individual journal articles as well as monographs and serials.

European Current Law (see below) has a bibliographical section.

For bibliographies proper, see classmark BG110; the most up-to-date title is the Court of Justice Library’s Legal bibliography of European integration (1981-1999).

Digests

European Current Law, published by Sweet and Maxwell, provides monthly digests of selected EU legislation and case law, arranged by subject. It also lists journal articles, books, legislation, cases, competition decisions, implementing measures and other information. The monthly parts cumulate into year books. IALS has the series from 1973 onwards.

Journals

The following are some of the journals in IALS Library which are specifically focused on EU or European law:

Columbia Journal of European Law

Common Market Law Review

Europarecht



European Business Law Review



European Intellectual Property Review

European Law Review



European Public Law

Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law

Revue trimestrielle de droit européen

Some of these titles are available electronically as well as in printed format - there are links from the Library Catalogue.

Of course, a great many other journals also publish articles on EU law. To conduct a thorough literature search, use Legal Journals Index (which covers journals published in the UK), Index to Legal Periodicals (mainly US journals, many of which cover EU law), Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (multi-lingual database covering non-common law jurisdictions, international law and comparative law), and Index to Periodical Articles Related to Law (English-language journals not covered by the other indexes). All these databases are in the IALS Electronic Law Library (note access restrictions).

Databases

Justis, Westlaw and Lexis Library all have substantial coverage of EU documentation, as described in the individual sections above. IALS also subscribes to journal index databases and some full-text EU journals which are available online - see above. For information about who can access these databases and how, see the IALS Electronic Law Library.

Websites

A large amount of EU information can be found on free websites, a selection of which are listed below. (For a fuller list, see the Eagle-i web gateway; select European Union from the "Country" drop-down menu.)

Agreements Database: database of treaties and international agreements, provided by the Council of the EU’s Treaty Office. Covers all treaties and international agreements made by the EU since 1989, plus older agreements which are still in force and some important old agreements which are no longer in force. Ratification details are given, plus other status information.

Archive of European Integration: online archive of EU documentation provided by the University of Pittsburgh. Covers green papers and white papers, reports by EU institutions and other materials.

Competition Directorate-General (DG COMP): convenient central access point for competition legislation, official guidelines, the Report on Competition Policy and details of individual cases (including notices not published elsewhere). Top of page

Council of the European Union: this website includes Council press releases, a register of internal documents (many with links to the full text) and general information about the work of the Council of the EU and the European Council.

Curia: the website of the Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance/General Court and the Civil Service Tribunal. Includes a database of cases from 17 June 1997 onwards, most of which are available in all the languages of the EU. Also provides numerical indexes to all cases, back to the 1950s, showing whether a case is still pending, has been dropped (“removed from the register”) or whether the judgment has been delivered; the indexes give links to the full text and cross-references to joined cases.

ECLAS: the catalogue of the European Commission’s Central Library. It covers individual journal articles as well as books and other publications and can therefore be used as a bibliography.

EUR-Lex: the EU’s main legal database, produced by the EU's Publications Office. Provides EU legislation (1952 - ), in force or not, with details of amendments and the implementation of directives; cases (1954 -) with details of legislation cited and commentary in journals; treaties and international agreements; the Official Journal (1998 - ); COM documents, including proposals for legislation (1999 - ); and parliamentary questions. Most of the content of EUR-Lex is available in all the languages of the EU.

Europa: the principal EU website and portal. Provides, among other things, summaries of legislation by subject, the General Report on the Activities of the European Union, the Official Directory of the European Union, green papers (consultation documents) and white papers (policy proposals).

European Commission: this website includes a large amount of policy information, the Commission’s work programme, documents produced by the Commission Directorates-General and a register of internal documents.

European Commission Treaties Office Database: broadly similar to the Council of the EU’s Agreements Database, but goes right back to the 1950s and excludes agreements between EU Member States. Top of page

European Competition Network: provides background information about the Network, relevant legislation and links to the website of each member state’s national competition authority.

European Parliament: provides comprehensive information about the activities of the European Parliament and its committees; parliamentary publications, including minutes and legislative reports ; press releases; the Legislative Observatory (see below); and a register of internal documents.

Internal Market and Services Directorate-General: the policy website of the European Commission's Internal Market Directorate-General, a substantial source of information about the Single Market. Areas covered include company law, contract law, financial services and intellectual property.

Legislative Observatory (OEIL): a European Parliament website tracking the progress of legislative proposals. It includes summaries and forecasts (unlike the Commission's equivalent, PreLex) and links to full text documents.
N-Lex: an experimental website produced by the EU's Publications Office, providing a multi-lingual interface and thesaurus with which to search the national legislation websites of twenty-two of the member states.

Pre-Lex: a database tracking the progress of legislative proposals, with links to full text documents. The site is provided by the European Commission. Provides more information about Council meetings than the European Parliament's equivalent, Legislative Observatory.

Rapid: press release database containing all Commission press releases from 1985 onwards, selected Council of the EU press releases and press releases from some other EU institutions.

Tenders Electronic Daily: five-year archive of the public procurement supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ S series).

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