ACCESS TO EUROPEAN COMMUNITY/EUROPEAN UNION PUBLICATIONS AT THE GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, BOULDER Compiled by Laura Lee Carter Revised by Peggy Jobe The University of Colorado at Boulder Library is depository for European Union (EU) publications. Prior to 1994, the European Union was known as the European Communities (EC). Use both forms of the name and acronym when searching in our catalog. As a depository we receive most of the publications of the EU free of charge. Most of the collection is in paper, but most of the legislative documents are on micro-fiche. THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) COLLECTION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO Major EU Materials * 1000 E19 European Communities. Commission. (Paper) * 1000 E19 C731 COM Documents1983- (Microfiche, Ask at the desk) * 1000 E19 J826a Official Journal (OJ) of the EU. Special Edition. (Microfiche, Ask at the desk,1952-72, 1965-72) * 1000 E19 J826e Official Journal (OJ) of the EU.1973- (Microfiche, Ask at the desk) * 1000 E19 J826e index Indexes to the Official Journal (OJ) of the EU. 1973-, (Microfiche, Index Table-Reference Area) * 1000 E19 J826e supp. Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. (Paper, Only present year retained ) * 1000 E19 J827e Debates of the European Parliament. 1968-1972, 1989- (Paper). (1973-88 Microfiche, Ask at the desk.) * 1000 E19 J826 Journal Officiel des Communautes Europeennes. 1958-68, (Paper). * 1000 E20 Specialized centres, offices or directorate-generals. Some materials received. (Paper) * 1000 E20ES Op3 CES Opinions and Reports. 1984- (Microfiche, Ask at the desk.) * 1000 E21 European Economic Commission. Some materials received. (Paper) * 1000 E23 European Parliament. Some materials received. (Paper) GUIDES TO EU DOCUMENTATION * The Documentation of the European Communities: A guide. By Ian Thomson, 1989. Z7165 E8 T47 1989 Govt. Pub. Reference A very detailed explanation and description of the current documentation available from the institutions and organizations of the EC. * EC 1992 and Beyond, Access to Information: A guide to EC documentation and databases. May 1992. 1000 E19 E105 1992 Govt. Pub Office Summarizes EC legislative procedure, statistical data and electronic databases and then assesses the documentation available in each area. An essential source for understanding EU documentation and publication dissemination procedures. BASIC EU REFERENCE SOURCES * Basic Statistics of the Community. 1000 E20ST-1 B292, International Reference. This handbook provides statistical comparisons with some European countries, Canada, the USA, Japan and the Commonwealth of Independent States in such areas as demography, gross domestic product, production, economy, finance, trade, education, employment, services and transportation. * Bulletin of the European Communities. 1968- 1000 E21 B874e, Intern'l. Stacks. This monthly publication covers the main events of the European Community, developments in Community policies, external relations and financing. Also discussed are such issues as European political cooperation, relations between and activities of Community institutions, and various special features. * Europe, Magazine of the European Community. 1979- 1000 E19 B872 Current periodical shelves. Europe is published ten times per year by the Delegation of the European Communities in Washington, D.C. Each issue contains articles on current happenings in the EU, member state reports as well as regular sections called Euroscene, Capitals, and Community Bookshelf, a bibliography of recent EU publications. * European Access1990- HC 241.2 E72 International Index Table. A current awareness bulletin to access EC policies, activities and publications about the EU. Includes a "Chronology of Events in the EU" which covers the 3 preceding months and a "Commentary" section which provides brief essays on recent developments. This journal primarily provides access to recent articles about the EU, indexing not only the EU's own publications but also such titles as the London Financial Times, The Economist, The European, to name a few. * Fact Sheets on the European Parliament and the Activities of the European Community. 1989- 1000 E23 F119 Govt. Pub. Reference Area This document presents a precise synopsis of the evolution of EU institutions and organs including a summary of the treaties which set up these institutions. It then outlines the structure and function of the European Parliament and the Council. There are also sections on EU external relations and a summary of current Community policies on everything from taxation to the environment. * Europe in Figures. 1988- 1000 E20ST-1 Eu74f Govt. Pub. Ref. Area This is a colorful, informative statistical summary of data on each EU country. With numerous tables and bar graphs, such topics as population, education, employment, standard of living, health, labour, energy, agriculture, services, industry, finance the environment and leisure are covered. * General Report on the Activities of the European Union. 1967- 1000 E19R299 Latest in Reference. Earlier Years in International Stack. An annual report on the activities of the European Union in the areas of citizenship, human rights, economics and society, external relations, and a summary of legislative activities. The summary provides a legislative history in tabular format with citations to commission proposals and other official publications. INDEXES TO EU MATERIALS General Indexes: * The Chinook Online Catalog: All EU materials received by this library since 1989 have been cataloged into the main CU-Boulder on- line catalog. This will provide the best access to materials by subject or title. * The Index to International Statistics (IIS): Provides access to specific statistical reports from the EU in both paper or microfiche format. This index can be searched either through the paper indexes or on the Statistical Masterfile on CD-ROM in the Government Publications Office. Please don't hesitate to ask for assistance. EC Produced Indexes: * EUR-OP: European Community as a Publisher: 1000 E19 P961 International Index Table This catalog is an abridged version of Publications of the European Communities. It is arranged by subject and includes the main official publications of the past few years and the most popular titles on general subjects. * Publications of the European Communities: 1000 E19 P961 International Index Table Indexes monographs and series publications from the institutions of the EU as well as periodicals. This index is divided into three sections: a classified list, a list of periodicals, and an index of titles and series. * Documents of the European Communities, or Documents Catalogue: 1000 E19 D659 Index Table Indexes COM Documents of the Commission of the EU, the Reports and working papers of the European Parliament, and the Opinions and Reports of the Economic and Social Committee. This index is divided into three parts: a classified index, an alphabetical keyword index, and a numerical index. COM documents are kept in the microfiche collection in the Government Publications Office. Please reference them by COM(year)number, for example: COM(87)685 * Eurostat Catalogue: Publications and electronic services: 1000 E20ST-9 P961 Index Table This catalog is published annually and comprises monographs, collections, CD-ROMs and computer files published by European Community Statistical Office (Eurostat). The catalog is divided into two parts: Publications, statistical publications and CD-ROMs in part one and other computer products in part two. * Index to the Official Journal (OJ) of the European Communities. Alphabetical Index This index was compiled using the Eurovoc multilingual thesaurus. For this reason this index frequently does not index by the term most commonly used in English. (1973-Present) Methodological Index This index provides a listing of all legislative acts in numerical order. It also provides the reference numbers necessary to locate these documents in the Official Journal microfiche collection. It first divides by L no.- Legislation and C no.-Information and Notices. Within the Legislation section please note there are two sequences: "Acts whose publication is obligatory", which includes most regulations and "Acts whose publication is not obligatory", which includes agreements, amendments, conventions, decisions, directives, opinions, protocols, recommendations, and rules of procedure. Regulations are not published consecutively in the Official Journal so citations must include the microfiche number (for example C309) as well as the date and page number for that issue. (1973-Present) Note: These indexes are on microfiche only and are located in the Government Publications Reference Area in the microfiche drawers. LEGISLATIVE DOCUMENTATION (On-line legislative publications are available for Telecommunications. These documents include COM Documents, citations to resolutions, decisions and recommendations published in the OJ C and OJ L. These online documents provide a peak into the legislative documentation of the EU) The European Union is a prolific publisher, but other international organizations could be described in the same way. What distinquishes the EC and makes it unique is its law-making capability. Its law takes precedence over the laws of its individual member states. The primary branches of EU government are: Commission, acting as the executive and administrative branch the Council of Ministers, playing the principal legislative role the Parliament, directly elected with limited legislative power the Court of Justice, fulfilling the role of the Supreme Court The EU legislative process blends a parliamentary system of government with a permanent intergovernmental negotiating conference. The Union does not produce the same type of legislative history that we are accustomed to in the U.S. Their legal documentation is a function of each institutions' roles in the decision-making process and relates to the internal procedures each has developed to handle its own documentation needs. The European Commission is composed of 20 members, appointed by but independent of the member state governments. The Commission's role is to initiate legislation and prepare the initial budget. There are no alternatives competing with the Commission's proposals as they go through the legislative process. Behind each proposal lies a mountain of paper; some of it accessible and some not. The Commission undertakes itself or contracts for studies on existing legal structures or economic problems in the member states to determine if Commission action is needed and what approach should be taken. These studies may later be issued as formal publications or languish as "grey literature". If the Commission does choose to request comments in the initial stages of legislation, the approach has been to issue a "green paper". Green papers have been done on broadcasting, copyright, telecommunications, and the company law statute. These are not published in the Official Journal, but are issued as mimeo documents in the "COM" series. When the draft of a proposal is approved by the Commission, it is then issued as a "COM" document. This is the standard format for proposed legislation. The proposal has several parts: an explanatory memorandum, the proposed legislative text, and sometimes a statement on the financial implications and another on the impact on small and medium-sized companies. The Commission is also the administrative body, overseeing member state implementation of directives and enforcing regulations. It has a rule-making authority granted by the Council of Ministers in legislation or derived directly from from the Treaties. It issues regulations for the day-to-day management of the common agricultural policy, conducts anti-dumping and antitrust investigations and can impose provisional dumping duties or inflict fines on companies for anti-competitiveness practices. Communications with the member states on implementation of directives or state aid investigations are always confidential. The regulations and decisions, notices and communications that the Commission is required to publish appear in the Official Journal. The Commission transmits its proposals to the Council of Ministers. The Council, representing the member states, acts on Commission proposals and is the final legislative authority. On the one side is a permanent staff of Community civil servants who assist the Council. On the other are the Permanent Representatives, offices of the member state governments headed by an Ambassador and staffed by national civil servants. Proposals are referred to appropriate working committees whose meetings are attended by the staffs of the Council and the Permanent Representatives, national experts from the governments and staff of the Commission. It is in these committees, in meetings of the Permanent Representatives, and formal sessions of the Council attended by ministers of the national governments that the legislative work is done. It is the Council which is the primary legislative body, but all of its work takes place behind closed doors. The working papers, the minutes of its sessions and working party meetings are all confidential. There is no legislative history as it is known in the U.S. There are no records of hearings, majority and minority reports, conference reports or floor debates to refer to when considering a final piece of legislation. The Council does issue a "common position" for consideration by the Parliament in its second reading. These should appear in the "C" section of the Official Journal. The final texts adopted by the Council appear in both the "L" and "C" sections of the Official Journal, the former if they are binding and the latter for non-binding acts. The European Parliament is composed of 626 members, directly elected every five years. It scrutinizes proposed legislation and acts as the EU's public forum in debating issues and questioning the Commission and Council. It may propose amendments to legislation, reject or insist on changes in the budget, and has the power to dismiss the Commission through a censure vote. The 1986 Single European Act increased Parliament's powers with regard to Union legislation by introducing a cooperation procedure which called for two readings of Union proposals by Parliament and the Council with the active participation of the Commission. The 1992 Treaty on European Union takes a further step towards recognition of the legislative powers of Parliament. It introduces a new co-decision procedure in a number of important areas which gives Parliament, in conjunction with the Council, the power to adopt regulations and directives on an equal footing. During the legislative process the Council may be required, or may opt to seek the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee. An institution with no formal equivalent in the U.S., the ESC is composed of 189 members appointed by the member governments. They are selected from the private sector to represent industry, labor, consumers, and the public at large. The committees of the ESC prepare reports for debate and adoption in plenary. These opinions later appear in the Official Journal. Although not a participant in the legislative decision-making process, the Court of Justice is a key institution in terms of the Community's legal system and documentation. The Court is composed of 15 judges and 9 advocates-general appointed by the member states for six year terms. The Court is empowered to decide cases involving the interpretation and application of Community law. For example, the most common situation is that the Commission will file a case against a member state for not implementing a directive. The announcement of cases registered, as well as the operative text of each decision, are later published in the "C" section of the Official Journal. The full text of decisions along with a report of the hearing and the advocate-general's opinion are published in Reports of the Court. The Court's work is summarized each year in the General Report on the Activities of the European Communities. A more detailed report on Court activities can be found in Digest of Case Law. All of the institutions share the Official Journal for issuing binding and non-binding legal acts. It is divided into four sections: * L series: contains the regulations and directives adopted by the Commission and the Council. * C series: covers the resolutions of the Council, communications and notices of the Commission on many diverse topics. * S series: the Supplement contains notices of government contracts financed by the European Development Fund, public works and supply contracts of the member states open to public bidding. * Annex: the debates of the European Parliament. The EU provides two different indexes to the Official Journal. The Alphabetical Index unfortunately rarely uses the word most commonly used in English. The Methodological Index is a consecutive listing of all legislative acts in numerical order. This assumes that the person searching already knows their regulation number. Fortunately, the EU also now provides the CELEX database. CELEX is a full text, on-line version of the L and C series available through Lexis/Nexis. This format offers a wide range of search capabilities, from free text keyword searches to document number. It also assures access to the entire Official Journal from 1952 to the present. -This information has been excerpted from: The Legal Documentation of the European Community A paper prepared by Barbara Sloan, Head of Public Inquiries, Delegation of the Commission of the EC --------------------------------------------------------------------------- University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Government Publications] [Jump to U.S. Government Resources] [Jump to State Resources] [Jump to International Resources] [Jump to Foreign Resources] [Jump to Guides to our Collection] [Search the Internet] [Jump to Citing Electronic Information] [What's New] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date last modified: 10/7/96 Send comments to Government Publications University of Colorado Homepage