EU Bookshop official launch, March 2005

Though in practice the EU Bookshop has been accessible for some months it was not fully functioning. On 10 March 2005 however it was officially launched by Jan Figel, Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism. Available at http://bookshop.eu.int, it can also be reached from a link on the Publications Office's home page at http://publications.eu.int. At launch it contains around 4,000 free and priced publications and it is planned to add older titles gradually to the archive, as well as make new titles available online. Free publications can be ordered in print or downloaded in PDF; priced publications can similarly be ordered online or downloaded. As well as an online ordering system and electronic archive, the Bookshop will also serve as an up to date catalogue of EU publications, replacing the print catalogues. Additional features will be added to the site in due course but the basic service is open for business.