EUR-Lex Portal, January 2002

It is now six months since the EUR-Lex portal was launched at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/. During that time it has continued to develop in content, links and access. The most significant - and very welcome - change has been the decision to make all legislation, whatever its date, freely available in all formats (HTML, TIFF or PDF) from 1st January 2002. Another development was the incorporation into EUR-Lex of the content of the EUDOR digital archive. With the implementation of these major improvements in access, this seems a good time to evaluate the progress of the portal to date and look more closely at its search capabilities.

The aim of the site was to provide a single point of entry to an integrated service for EU legal information in order to make the data accessible to the widest possible audience. This does not simply mean access to documents. Users are able to follow the progress of legislation from proposal right through to adoption and, indeed, to the testing of that legislation in the Court. Currency is another key feature of the site as parts, such as the Official Journal, are updated daily. Additionally as an aid to understanding the complex system, background information explaining the processes themselves is also provided, together with links to appropriate related sources such as CELEX, OEIL, PreLex, CURIA and TED.

The home page looks slightly daunting with a multiplicity of options - some duplicated - but once you have orientated the various routes are easily to hand. The news feature in the main body of the page is currently carrying a link to a selection of documents relating to public access to documents. Below that are links to each of the seven main domains: Official Journal, Treaties, Legislation, Legislation in Preparation, Case-law, Parliamentary Questions and Documents of Public Interest. Beside each heading there is also a link to the latest updates in that field. The Official Journal “latest” link, for example, leads to the calendar of issues of the last 45 days, and a link to TED for the Official Journal Supplement. (In practice of course there is now no limit of 45 days to the OJ PDF files: they are available right back to 1998.) The domains can also be reached from the main menu bar at the top of the screen but do not have a “latest” link on this route.

For those keen to launch in with a search, the Quick search feature in the top left of the screen searches across all the domains. The question mark offers contextual help wherever it is found on EUR-Lex, while clicking on the magnifying glass icon submits the search. The quick search allows the use of double quotation marks for phrase searching, the + sign for the Boolean AND operator, and the comma for OR. The NOT command can also be used, and the asterisk will act as a wildcard for a string of characters while the question mark will mask a single one. The hit list produced is the old familiar EUR-Lex results set where a large number of records may be returned and it is difficult to identify exactly what you are looking for. The box at the bottom does allow you to refine the search, but the search is a basic plain text search of the web pages and the documents in the EUR-Lex portal. Clicking on the down arrows takes users to the old EUR-Lex search screen which offers a plain text search with the possibility of setting a number of parameters, or a search by document number.

The new global “All” search permits a search by document number or a text search across all the domains. It is possible to limit the number of documents to be displayed, change the default date or set a date span, and select a language option to display a different language version of a document from the language of the search strategy. Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk. While all documents stored in the depositories will be searched, it is important to note that only the title information of TIFF documents is searchable as these are stored as digital images. Also some TIFF files previously on the now defunct EUDOR are not currently indexed on the EUR-Lex site though work is in hand to restore full coverage. The missing documents can nevertheless be ordered via the EUR-OP document delivery network or through the online ordering system at http://online.eur-op.eu.int/servlet/page?_pageid=56&_dad=catdiff&_schema=PORTAL30&_mode=3&p_new=yes

To conduct a more specific search, a single domain can be selected. The domain search screens have the same feel as the global search but are individually tailored with appropriate search fields and relevant links at the top of the page. For example, the legislation domain search offers document number, publication reference in the Official Journal, or a word in text search as well as providing a link to CELEX for an advanced search. It is also now possible to retrieve legislation no longer in force by clearing the “Acts in force” check box. Links at the top of the legislation page lead to the electronic Directory of Legislation in Force, consolidated legislation and the Secretariat General of the Commission's web site on the Application of Community law in the Member states at http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgb/droit_com/index_en.htm/. Hopes should not be raised at this point that implementing legislation is available here. The site provides tables and graphs on progress of notification of national measures to implement directives, recent decisions on infringements together with statistical data, and state aid decisions so the emphasis is on compliance, not on how it has been achieved.

The Treaties domain contains a hyperlink to the Treaty of Nice in PDF format as well as the consolidated version of the treaties and selected instruments. The link to Information on the Treaties leads to the explanatory background pages, texts and documents on Europa at http://www.europa.eu.int/abc/treaties_en.htm

Legislation in preparation includes among its links the Directory of Community proposals, plus those proposals not yet included in the Directory, ScadPlus, PreLex, EP activities and the Council's register of documents. The search template enables users to specify precisely a document type, eg Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee, search by document reference or by word in text, and limit the results to pending proposals only if required. However it is worth remembering that once a proposal has been adopted it usually only remains on EUR-Lex for about three years, so EUR-Lex is by no means the complete archive solution and if you need to refer to older COM documents you will still need to rely on paper or microfiche for the full text including the explanatory memorandum. To facilitate searches by type of measure, links have been provided to OEIL and PreLex. However where the monitoring of the decision-making process is most fully integrated is when a search turns up a reference to a proposal. The status link below the bibliographic details offers a connection to PreLex and OEIL which takes the user directly to the relevant document in the databases so that full details about the stage the proposal has reached can be seen.

Documents of public interest cover Commission documents which are not proposals, eg White papers, Green papers, communications and reports. The search template is limited to document number or word, with a link to the latest documents mounted on the web site.

The Case-law domain provides links to the Court of Justice CURIA site for judgements and opinions since 1997, the DG Competition site for merger decisions, and (though not EU) the EFTA Court and the European Court of Human Rights. Cases can be searched for by number, European Court Report reference, party or word in text. Although the CURIA site does not contain reports pre-dating 1997, all the earlier case reports can be found by searching in the Case-law domain, though the texts are in HTML format only.

The Parliamentary questions page offers simply a word search with a date limit option and, more usefully, a link to the European Parliament's web site which has a good search engine. There a simple search mode is available for written questions. The parliamentary session 1994-1999 or 1999-2004 can be selected and then the search mask offers author, words in text (with a truncation option using the asterisk), question number and range of “date tabled” fields. Alternatively the expert search mode offers all of the above together with political group, member state representation, the institution to which the question was addressed, question type (eg priority) and the option to restrict the search to title only. Only the expert mode is available to search for oral questions and questions raised at question time.

The obvious gap in the domains is information on the national implementing measures. Users are expected to resort to CELEX to find this data. However, a useful tip from Chris Lamb, now with the CORDIS Information Management Service, explains how to circumvent the system. Find the directive you want and click on the yellow “More info” flag. A long URL will appear in the address bar of your browser. If you look closely at it, you will find a string which identifies the document number, eg numdoc=31994L0020. CELEX sector 3 contains legislation; sector 7 contains details of national legislative measures enacting a directive. Change the 3 in the document number to a 7, then press return and the CELEX data will be displayed. Please do not blame Chris however if the information you want is still not available. This sector of CELEX has long been incomplete although work is in hand to update it.

The search function in the individual domains works slightly differently from the global search. The Boolean operators - the + sign for AND, the comma for OR, and the expression NOT - are the same, and double inverted commas should also be used for phrase searching. However for some reason, although the wildcard * can be used inside a word or at the end of a word to represent one or more characters, the masking character for a single letter is not the ? as in the global search, but the underline symbol. In practice, both the underline symbol and the question mark seem to work satisfactorily in the individual domain searches and the “All” global search, but only the question mark works in the Quick search. Confused? For most purposes the asterisk, representing one or more characters will do the job. If you need greater precision, you will have to read the help information for a reminder!

When the list of hits, from whichever domain, are displayed, the coloured flags beneath the bibliographic record offer the range of display formats. The yellow flag, “More info”, gives the full bibliographic reference with details of the text formats available, the document's classification code in the Directory of Legislation in Force, and the EUROVOC thesaurus terms allocated. For COM documents, it offers the status link which opens a new window showing the document's full history to date in PreLex or OEIL. Red flags indicate that a PDF file is available. These will include tables and images as they appeared in the printed version but they date only from 1998. The blue flag signifies that there is a TIFF digital image of the document, which will also be complete with graphics and tables. This will be delivered either by e-mail or FTP. Large documents may have to be split to ensure safe delivery. For all full text records there will be a green HTML flag. While this format will display the text it will not contain illustrations, tables or annexes. Finally, the orange “Jurisprudence” flag links directly to the text of case law on the CURIA site so applies only to reports from mid-1997 onwards. It is worth reiterating that all of these formats are now offered free of charge, although as outlined above not all documents are available in all formats.

The display of the list of results is not always helpful. Usually it provides a bibliographic reference with full title details. On other occasions - relating mainly to recently added records where the data is still incomplete - only the published reference is listed, making it difficult to identify what is relevant. No doubt related to this problem is the retrieval of some odd results when a date limit is set. Very recently dated hits which should have been eliminated still appear.

As well as the content of the main domains, there is also a wealth of background information to help users to understand the legislative system and trace the information they need. On the left of the screen the heading Links offers related legal databases, but clicking on the down arrows provides a lengthy collection of further links to official documents of various institutions and agencies, including the Consilium database which is the public register of Council documents. Further down the page are links to the French language site http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/html/liens/sitesjuridiqlm.htm/ which provides legislation and case law of Member States. An alternative link to institutional and legal sites of Member States at http://curia.eu.int/common/recdoc/liens/index.htm leads for example to government and official publications sources. Unfortunately neither of these sites link directly to a specific document - they simply takes you to the entry point. However the EULEX project, for which the Commission now has responsibility, aims to make direct links to national legislation, including national implementing measures. EULEX will access by links only to free of charge services and initially four to six Member States will be involved. A preliminary report is expected early in 2002 with complete implementation of this first phase by the end of the year. Such a development, which goes beyond simple transposition details, will be enthusiastically welcomed.

Under the heading “About EU law”, Process and Players calls up an outline of the legislative and judicial processes and explains how the institutions work together. The link to ABC launches Adobe Acrobat and displays the electronic version of the booklet by Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, The ABC of Community law OOPEC, 2000 (European Documentation). The contents display makes it easy to move quickly to a specific section, eg the powers of the EU or the EU's legal character. The Glossary heading links to the glossary in ScadPlus which provides definitions of institutions and policies. Compared with the original version of 1997, which was also produced in print, this has been usefully expanded, in particular to incorporate issues relating to enlargement. A later paper edition has since been published but the electronic version continues to be updated so offers more current information than the print.

Further options can be displayed by clicking on the down arrows, including legislative flow-charts of the co-operation and co-decision procedures (part of the PreLex database help information) and a link to the European Parliament Fact sheets. Help on using the site, a site map, FAQs, contact information and ordering details complete the content of the site.

Free access to the full body of EU legislation and case law, mostly now in more useful formats, must bring increasing pressure on the commercial providers of this data to ensure that they are offering significant added value to their products to attract subscribers. It is already a highly competitive market. The latest developments can only serve to heighten the pressure.

For the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities and for users too there are other aspects to the changes. EUR-OP issued a notice last year to all information relays concerning copyright. The previous hard line on no reproduction without prior permission has been relaxed in relation to legislative material. It is now recognised that legislation is in the public domain, so for legislative material published in the Official Journal of the European Communities and in the Reports of cases before the Court of Justice and Court of First Instance together with their digital versions such as EUR-Lex and the OJ CD-ROM it is no longer necessary to request prior written permission for reproduction. As access to EUR-Lex content is improved and the potential cost of production of the Official Journal soars in the light of enlargement, more institutions are following the Commission's example and deciding to cease publication of their documents in the OJ C. Since 1999 the Commission has published its preparatory legislative acts only in the OJ C E. From January 2002, the Parliament has moved to publishing its minutes and adopted texts in electronic format only for cost-cutting reasons. Common positions will also be available only in the OJ C E from the same date. Similarly the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions are considering following suit. The paper copy of the OJ C will be a shadow of its former self so it will be essential to rely on electronic sources such as the EUR-Lex portal for completeness. A move to an entirely electronic Official Journal is however unlikely in the short term until electronic documents are recognised as legally authentic.

With all the material that is now available free of charge will there still be a need for the CELEX database? The intention is that it will continue to run on a subscription basis but it is recognised that is must offer a clearly enhanced service. Current benefits include an online helpdesk, user manual, hyperlinks to related documents, more sophisticated search possibilities, including an expert search mode, and the facility to exploit fully all the analytical data added to the records. Searches are faster and more precise. For example date searches in CELEX can pick records by the date of entry into force or end of validity, while EUR-Lex offers only date of document or date of publication.

EUR-OP says too that it remains committed to the further development of both the free and subscription services. As a benchmark for the free portal it cites keeping pace with similar services in the Member States. For CELEX future enhancements being considered include the development of an alert service, the possibility of moderated interactive communication between users for the exchange of search tips, payment by credit card for infrequent usage, the ability to subscribe online and the extension of the content to cover the Court of Justice's reference bibliography on the interpretation of legislation and case law, and the inventory of national court decisions applying Community law. Access to legislative information has certainly come a long way from the days of the Mistral command language!