Developments in European information issues: Networks and relays – Services – Products, November 2000

EP Debates on CD-ROM

Paper publication of the Debates of the European Parliament ceased with issue 4-539 of May 1999, covering the last part-session of the fourth legislature. There was no part-session in June 1999 due to the elections. From the beginning of the fifth legislature, the Debates are being made available via the Internet on the European Parliament's website at http://www.europarl.eu.int/plenary/default_en.htm#debates and on CD-ROM only. The first multilingual CD-ROM covering July to December 1999 is now available at a cost of 25 euro (Catalogue reference QA-AA-99-001-1F-Z). According to the information supplied with the CD-ROM, minimum system requirements are given as a 486 PC, though a Pentium 166 MHz is recommended. For software, either Windows95/98 or NT4.0 with Netscape 4.0 browser or Internet Explorer 5.0 is needed. However a number of users have experienced difficulties in trying to use the CD-ROM. Either the graphics will not display correctly or if they do, they will not launch the application. It is not clear whether this is related to a higher system requirement than specified. Whatever the explanation, users will need to view the new product with caution until the technical issues are resolved. Meantime the European Parliament website itself at http://www.europarl.eu.int is undergoing some major renovation work. The banner now includes a dropdown menu as well as links to the President and the political groups. The index option from the menu leads to a thematic index. There is also an A-Z index as an alternative, so if you have lost the page you used to use, you should still be able to track it down. For anyone with EP bookmarks and hyperlinks, some checking may be required as changes have been made to the layout and organisation of the pages.

SCADplus loses National Implementing Measures

Details of the national implementing measures for Directives were until recently freely available through SCADplus. However as the information had not been updated for some time and was therefore considered misleading, it has been withdrawn. It should be noted that that CELEX sector containing this data has similarly not been updated since June 1999. Plans are in hand to make public an internal database managed by the Secretariat-General of the Commission which records national implementing measures. It is expected to appear shortly on the Secretariat-General's website. Check for developments at http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/index_en.htm

CELEX expert search guide

A twenty-two page quickstart guide to the expert user interface of CELEX is available to download in pdf format from the News and Updates section on the CELEX home page. Only the English version has been produced so far but the other official language versions are being translated. It is clearly and helpfully laid out. Beware however that with the graphics incorporated this makes a large file and may take a considerable time to download