European Union law
1. Legal Gazette
1.1. Overview
Official Journal of the European Union
(published in the official languages of the EU, currently 24)
Published by:
Publications Office of the European Union
2, rue Mercier — 2985 Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Tel. +352 2929-1
Fax +352 2929-44691
E-mail:
info@publications.europa.eu
Website:
https://op.europa.eu
Official journal/
legal gazette |
The Official Journal of the European Union is composed of three series: one with legislation (L series) and one with legal notices and communications, as well as supplements and annexes (C series) and one with European public procurement notices (S series); see point 1.2 for details.
|
| First edition |
30 December 1952 (Official Journal of the European Coal and Steel Community)
Since 1 January 1958 Official Journal of the European Communities
Since 1 May 2004 Official Journal of the European Union
|
| First online edition |
3 January 1998 |
| Paper edition |
Official Journal of the European Union
Price
Print on demand
No legal value |
| Online edition |
https://www.eur-lex.europa.eu/JOIndex.do?ihmlang=en
PDF from 1998
TIFF from 1952
For details on the language versions see points 1.2 and 1.3.
Access and price
Free
Legally binding |
1.2. Details on the legal gazette in general
| Content |
Annual continuous pagination until 30 June 1967 (up to No 137); as from 1 July 1967 (No 138) separate pagination per issue.
Since 1968 the Official Journal has been split into two series: the L and C series.
Since the distribution of texts to the two series has not been fixed by a legal act, it has changed over the years — the current distribution is as follows:
- • L series (legislation): EU secondary legislation (regulations, directives, decisions, opinions, recommendations) and sometimes primary legislation, i.e. treaties (authentic only in the national legal gazettes of the Member States concerned);
- • C series (communication): EU information and notices (preparatory acts, announcements, summaries of judgments of the Court of Justice, written parliamentary questions, annual reports of the Court of Auditors, statements from the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, calls for expressions of interest for EU programmes and projects, public contacts, etc.); primary legislation (treaties).
- • C …A series (C-Annex): competition notices for recruitment by EU institutions and common catalogues of varieties of agricultural plant species. The C …E series (C-Electronic) of the series, which has existed between 1999 and 2013 (first number C 247 E). It contains preparatory acts in the legislative process (i.e. the list of Commission proposals — no longer the full text — Council common positions, and minutes of the sittings of the European Parliament).
- • LI and CI series: these series were introduced in 2015 for urgent publishing needs of author services.
- http://www.efta.int/content/publications/EEASupplements
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| Linguistic versions |
According to the accession dates of the respective Member States, the Official Journal has been published in the following language versions:
- since 1952: in Dutch, French, German and Italian;
- since 1973: also in Danish and English;
- since 1981: also in Greek;
- since 1986: also in Portuguese and Spanish;
- since 1995: also in Finnishd Slovenian;
- since 2007: also in Bulgarian and Romanian.
- Since 2013: also in Croatian. Since 2007, legislation adopted according to the co-decision procedure is also published in Irish. Primary legislation, i.e. treaties, has also been adopted in Irish since 1973 in a special Irish version of the Official Journal, published only in book form.
Texts from 1952 that were still in force at the respective accession dates are, in principle, also available as part of the special editions published in the framework of these enlargements.
|
| Legal basis |
The Official Journal of the European Union is based on the legal provisions stated in Article 254 of the Treaty establishing the European Community and in Article 163 of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, as well as on the decisions of the Councils of the European Economic Community and of the European Atomic Energy Community of 15 September 1958 creating the Official Journal of the European Communities (Official Journal No 17, 6.10.1958, pp. 390 and 419). |
| Financing |
Budget of the European Union |
1.3. Details on the online edition
https://www.eur-lex.europa.eu/JOIndex.do?ihmlang=en
See also point 1.1
| Functionalities |
- Download
- Awareness system under construction (LexAlert)
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| Format description |
|
| Linguistic versions |
As far as the different language versions are concerned, the availability of the PDF editions of the Official Journal is as follows:
- since 1998 for the Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish editions;
- since May 2004 for the Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Slovak and Slovene editions, including the special editions containing the texts of the acts of the institutions and of the European Central Bank adopted before 1 May 2004 and still in force at that date;
- since 2007 for the Bulgarian and Romanian editions, including the Special Editions in these languages, as well as for the Irish edition.
- since 2013 the Croatian edition, including the Special Editions in this language
- • The texts published in the Official Journal, including most texts prior to 1998 — within the limits described in point 1.2 — can also be accessed (in PDF, TIFF and/or HTML formats) using the search functions of the EUR-Lex database (see point 3.2).
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| Authenticity |
- A study was conducted in 2007 on measures to be taken in order to guarantee the integrity of the workflows and to ensure the authenticity of the electronic edition of the Official Journal.
- A task force has been created to undertake actions required in order to provide the electronic edition with a date and time stamp and an electronic signature during the course of 2009.
- Since 1st July 2013, when the electronic Official Journal acquired legal value
|
| Archiving |
An external service provider manages the electronic archive, under the supervision of the Publications Office. The archiving process includes all official gazettes (in TIFF/PDF format) and takes place after publication of the electronic edition. |
1.4. Details on the publishing institution
Publications Office of the European Union
For contact details, please refer to point 1.1
The Publications Office is an interinstitutional body governed by a management committee (see Decision 2009/496/EC, Euratom of 26 June 2009 on the organisation and operation of the Publications Office of the European Union; an amendment is currently under way), in which each institution is represented by its secretary-general or, in the case of the Court of Justice, by the Court’s Registrar. The Committee meets several times a year and is responsible for the strategic orientations of the publication of the Official Journal. Further information on the Management Committee is available in the annual management report:
https://op.europa.eu/about_us/index_en.htm
| Form and nature |
Interinstitutional office (for administrative purposes, the Office is considered as a directorate-general of the European Commission). |
| Basic tasks |
- Pre-press: 100 % subcontracted
- Printing: 100 % subcontracted
- Dissemination/distribution: yes
- Legal gazette online: yes
- Legislation database: yes
- Consolidation: yes
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| Other services offered |
- EUR-Lex
- the EU Open Data Portal
- EU Publications
- TED (Tenders Electronic Daily)
- CORDIS Information on documents
- Distribution of free publications
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1.5. Drafting and publishing procedures
Text processing
systems |
- Use of Microsoft Word templates for legislative documents (LegisWrite)
- Use of a special file transfer system (e-Greffe) enabling each directorate-general of the European Commission to submit electronically its legislation dossier via a web browser interface (access restricted to designated legislative coordinators)
- Except for certain types of documents (e.g. the budget), the system is not based on XML standards. Documents are subject to later conversion to Formex (the XML version created by the Publications Office).
|
| Workflow |
There is no single integrated electronic workflow system for drafting,
adopting and publishing.
Texts to be published are sent electronically to a functional mailbox or via an electronic reception system and uploaded in a workflow application (PlanJO). Files are sent to printers via FTP and the printers deliver PDF and Formex (XML) files of the Official Journal via a reception system (NewCeres).
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| Publishing |
- The Publications Office is in charge of proofreading. Proofreaders for each of the 23 official languages of the EU ensure the daily correction in terms of legislative technique, terminology and technical rules.
- The Publications Office is in charge of the technical aspects of publishing.
- The minimum period between reception of a draft in the publishing workflow and availability of the published text is one working day.
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2. Collections of consolidated Legislation
See full details >>
EUR-Lex (see point 3.2)
https://eur-lex.europa.eu
Body carrying out
consolidation |
Publications Office of the European Union
|
| Content |
- Consolidated versions of treaties
- Secondary legislation (regulations, directives, decisions, international agreements)
|
Status of the
consolidated texts |
Consolidation is for information purposes only. |
Deadline for
consolidation |
Updating of the texts is carried out immediately after the publication of an amending act and taking into account the date of applicability of the amending provision.
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3. Legislative portals and online databases
3.1. Official portals
3.2. Official databases
EUR-Lex
https://eur-lex.europa.eu
Database integrating since 2004 the former CELEX and the former EURLex website
Organisation
responsible |
Publications Office of the European Union
|
| Content |
- Authentic Official Journal of the European Union (see point 1.3)
- Non-consolidated legislation (default version)
- Consolidated texts (added later)
EUR-Lex contains also:
- Treaties
- Preparatory documents
- EFTA documents
- EU case law
- International agreements
- References to national transposition measures
- References to national case-law related to EU Law
- Information and documents concerning law-making procedures, from the proposal by the European Commission to the publication of the adopted act in the Official Journal
- Summaries of EU Legislation
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| Access |
Free of charge
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3.3. Additional information: other commonly used legal databases
The following hosts disseminate an online edition of EUR-Lex under licence from the Publications Office:
