Crosswalking EUR-Lex: a proposal for a metadata mapping to improve access to EU documents

The Office for Official Publications of the European Communities offers direct free access to the most complete collection of European Union law via the EUR-Lex online database.

The value of the system lies in the extensive sets of metadata which allow for efficient and detailed search options.

Nevertheless, the European institutions have each set up their own document register including their own sets of metadata, in order to improve access to their documents and meet the increasing need for transparency.

Michael Düro suggests that to simplify access to EU documents, a common single search option could be based on a mapping of the most relevant metadata to the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. Then a second mapping — linked to the idea of EUR-Lex serving as the single repository for European documents — could prepare the ground for the completion and enrichment of the document and metadata collection.

With regard to its inter-institutional context, and using the ideas proposed in this publication, EUR-Lex could enhance, even further, public access to EU documents.
Crosswalking EUR-Lex: a proposal for a metadata mapping to improve access to EU documents is intended for all those who would like, or need to know more about the European institutions' tools implementing the policy on access to documents.

The main proposals could serve as food for thought for those involved in decision-making in that field.