Public Register of Council documents

Public Register of Council documents:

As part of the Council of the European Union's efforts to improve openness and transparency in the workings of the Council a Register of unclassified Council documents has been launched on the Internet as from January 1999, on the basis of guidelines adopted by the Council on 19 March 1998. The aim of the register is to provide for the public a list of all the documents submitted to the Council in its day-to-day work. Such documents can be authored by the Council itself, the Presidency, a Member State, another Community institution or body, a national or international organisation or a 'natural or legal person'.

The Register contains details only of documents submitted to the Council since 1 January 1999 (i.e. currently, it is not retrospective). For each document a 'bibliographic record' is provided containing the following information: title, unique reference number, a reference to the originator and addressee of the document, the dates on which it was produced and archived and, where appropriate, the date of the meeting to which the document pertains. No further details as to the nature or contents of the document is given. It is stressed in the introduction to the Register that the listing of a document in the Register does not prejudge the Council's response to any request for access to that document. Furthermore, when the author of the document is any organisation other than the Council the request for access to the document must be addressed to the author of the document not the Council.

When searching for documents it is possible to key in the unique reference number, the title of the document, the date of the document and the date of any related meeting. It is also possible to carry out a form of subject search, although you should be aware that the alphabetical list of subjects is, in reality, an alphabetical list of the subjects codes, which are by no means self evident. For example, if you were to look for documents relating to 'steel' there is no mention under 'S' in the subject listing as the subject code used is 'ACIER'.

Overall, the Register is a significant development in the moves towards openness and transparency, although one should be aware of its strictly limited formal function.

For further details and access to the Register the Internet url is:

http://register.consilium.eu.int/isoregister/infoEN.htm

Contact:

The Council of the European Union
Justus Lipsius Building
Rue de la Loi, 175
B-1048 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32-2-285-61-11
Fax: +32-2-285-73-97