EUR-Lex/CELEX new system, July 2004

The first public preview of the new system merging and providing free access to the existing EUR-Lex and CELEX databases was given at the EU Databases User Group (EUDUG) meeting at the European Parliament Office in London on 3rd June 2004. A week later the British and Irish Association of Laws Librarians (BIALL) had an opportunity at their pre-conference seminar in Edinburgh to get a first glimpse of how the new service will look. Though work remains to be done on the system, first impressions in both cases were positive. The move to free of charge access came at the behest of the European Parliament and the intention is to give better and wider access to information in the interests of openness and transparency. As a result a radical modernisation of the service has taken place which provides a completely new design and at the same time enables it to cope with enlargement and the addition of nine new official languages. Efforts have been made to incorporate the positive feedback on the current menu driven version of CELEX while taking into account the less positive reactions to aspects of EUR-Lex. Behind the front interface is a new database architecture which dispenses with the individual language databases, allowing for new functionality, and uses XML and UTF 8 Unicode to enable it to handle the wide character set required by the new languages. It is planned that by 2007 it will be able to cope with Cyrillic.

The new system is designed to be robust enough to support the more intensive use an entirely free service is likely to have to withstand, but it is also more secure. This is in effect the first step towards the distribution of a legally authentic text of the Official Journal online. In a service where 76 million documents were consulted in 2003, the impact of providing a free service to a far wider audience is not insignificant. Additionally there will be better presentation and use of the metadata in CELEX. The aim is to provide clarity despite the complexity of the data - no mean task. The design has taken full consideration of WAI guidelines and has worked on making sure that the site is fully compliant, rather than offering a separate WAI complaint access route, while at the same time trying to adopt the common graphical rules for Europa sites.

The start date for the new system was supposed to be 1st July 2004 and, though the 1st is now unlikely, the target date is still July. It is envisaged that the current EUR-Lex and CELEX services will continue to be updated until 31 October 2004 and that meantime the new service will continue to be developed. The current EUR-Lex and CELEX services will close on 31st December 2004. The existing added value features of the expert search and alerting service will be maintained within the new system.

Looking at the detail of the new design, the home page banner is blue, as are the search screens - though in a paler shade. Different colours have been used for the different sectors, so for example the Official Journal browse screens use yellow. The home page is split into three parts with the main search options on the left. The menu is headed by a link to the Official Journal which will allow users to browse for the issue they want. Below that comes a link to the simple search and to the advanced search. The latter will link to the existing CELEX Expert 4 search, which will not be further developed before the second half of 2005. Underneath the main search options is the possibility of searching by sector. Unlike the current arrangement in EUR-Lex where there is a separate tab for “Documents of public interest”, in the new system these will all be incorporated into the search screen for preparatory documents, where it will be possible to limit the search by a particular document type. The final set of links on the left offers access to background information and the registers of the institutions. However the left menu will not always be visible, for example on the search pages or the results lists, so users will rely on the breadcrumb trail at the top of the screen to find their way back.

In the centre of the screen is information about the service, dossiers on key topics, and selected new documents. On the right is a direct link to the latest issue of the Official Journal and it is expected that this will be loaded faster than at present. This is one of the few examples of duplication in the presentation of the site but it was considered important to offer immediate access to that day's OJ as a current awareness service as well as the facility to browse for earlier issues. Below that link on the right there is a login facility though the site will offer direct free of charge access. However for those who want to use the Alert service, create their own dossiers of documents to refer back to, set their personal language options or save searches, registration will be necessary. The final option on that side is access to the Publications Office to purchase the OJ L&C or OJ S series.

The simple search retains the options of the current menu driven CELEX interface to search by key words, date, author; by CELEX number or document number; by sector; or by publication - OJ or European Court Reports. Additionally there is now the option to search by Eurovoc terminology, though it is unlikely that this will go right down to the bottom level of descriptors. Although work has been done in recent years to ensure that Eurovoc is added consistently to other CELEX legislative records as well as the European Parliament documents, the one institution that has not previously cooperated in this work has been the Court. However it is hoped that from 2005 the Court will come on board. Not only will it be possible to access consolidated texts, as currently available in EUR-Lex though not up to date in sector O of CELEX, it is planned to offer different consolidated versions as amendments are made so that it is possible to check the state of the legislation on a given date.

Overall the screens look clear and in most of the top level pages there should be no need to scroll down to see more details as efforts have been made to fit all the essential information on to one screen. Helpfully the search screen offers examples of how to enter terms. Because of the current pressure on translation services with the impact of enlargement it is unlikely that all language interfaces of the database will be available on launch but the new language versions will follow as soon as possible.

The results display has been considerably developed and refined so offers much improved flexibility. The existing document flags have been retained and Word format will also be offered. As before is will still be possible to order TIFF documents and there is a plan to offer zip format downloads, particularly for example for large files like the Budget, though this may not be available immediately on launch. The flags will always be presented in the same order so if a document is not available in a particular format there will be a gap. It is also possible to see which formats are available in which language. The results will by default be displayed in reverse date order as now, but it will be possible to redisplay by sector, by legislative procedure or by Chapter of the Directory of Legislation in Force, making it easier to sort through hits lists. Switching language will be simple and a conscious decision has been made not to use dropdown language menus but to retain the language codes as being more WAI friendly. It is also possible to have a bilingual display with different language versions on the left and right of the screen. There too the language options remain visible so further selection is simple. From the first list of results it will be straightforward to refine the search using the full range of options.

Clearly it will only be a live test of the new site that will give an accurate picture of the success of the new merged service but first impressions look promising. It appears to incorporate the best features of the old as well as introducing new functionality in a design which looks both pleasing and as intuitive as this complex data will allow. The final decision on the name has not yet been made. To date it retains the EUR-Lex/CELEX label to maintain existing users of both services, but the new free service should attract an even broader range of users. Whoever they are, it looks as if the new system will elicit a positive response.