LibGuides: European Union Information: Introduction

European Documentation Centre

Until December 2020 Lancaster University was an official European Documentation Centre and as such received many official publications of the European institutions, although most titles are now available online. Publications cover a wide range of subjects, including agriculture, economics, energy, science and technology, social affairs, trade and transport. These publications can be found by searching OneSearch.

The Statistical Office (Eurostat) publishes collections of statistics in all these areas.

Many series which were formerly received are now freely available via the EU’s website Europa. This page also includes a useful section on Documents and publications.

EUR-Lex gives access to European law, including the Official Journal

European online resources

Legislation

EUR-Lex
EUR-Lex provides free access, in the 24 official EU languages, to:
- the authentic Official Journal of the European Union
- EU law (EU treaties, directives, regulations, decisions, consolidated legislation, etc.)
- preparatory acts (legislative proposals, reports, green and white papers, etc.)
- EU case-law (judgments, orders, etc.)
- international agreements
- EFTA documents
- summaries of EU legislation, which put legal acts into a policy context, explained in plain language
- other public documents.
EU Law
EU law is divided into 'primary' and 'secondary' legislation. The treaties (primary legislation) are the basis or ground rules for all EU action.
Secondary legislation – which includes regulations, directives and decisions – are derived from the principles and objectives set out in the treaties.
Legislative Observatory
The Legislative Observatory allows users to follow the decision-making process for all EU legislative and non-legislative procedures going through the European Parliament.
Summaries of EU Legislation
The Summaries of EU legislation inform on the main aspects of the European legislation, policies and activities in a clear, easy-to-read and concise way. These Summaries are intended for a general, non-specialized audience and cover 32 topics corresponding to the activities of the European Union.

Lexis+ UK This link opens in a new window
Provides access to case law, legislation, journal articles and practitioner texts from the UK plus legal materials from the US, Canada and other common law jurisdictions.
Content includes: full text of amended and consolidated UK legislation from 1267; a comprehensive range of general and specialist law reports including the Law Reports of England & Wales, All England Law Reports, Weekly Law Reports and the Family Law Reports; Halsbury’s Laws of England and Wales; over 100 full text UK law journals from a range of publishers including Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press.

Institutions

EU Institutions and Bodies
A brief list of the major institutions and bodies of the EU.
European Council
The European Council defines the EU's overall political direction and priorities. It is not one of the EU's legislating institutions, so does not negotiate or adopt EU laws. Instead it sets the EU's policy agenda, traditionally by adopting 'conclusions' during European Council meetings which identify issues of concern and actions to take.
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive of the European Union and promotes its general interest.
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the only directly-elected body of the European Union. The 751 Members of the European Parliament are elected once every five years by voters right across the 28 Member States of the European Union on behalf of its 500 million citizens.
European Court of Justice
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) interprets EU law to make sure it is applied in the same way in all EU countries, and settles legal disputes between national governments and EU institutions.
It can also, in certain circumstances, be used by individuals, companies or organisations to take action against an EU institution, if they feel it has somehow infringed their rights.
European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is an EU advisory body comprising representatives of workers' and employers' organisations and other interest groups. It issues opinions on EU issues to the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament, thus acting as a bridge between the EU's decision-making institutions and EU citizens.

Libraries and Archives

Archive of European Integration (AEI)
The Archive of European Integration (AEI) is an electronic repository and archive for research materials on the topic of European integration and unification.
European Research Papers Achive
A searchable joint access point to 17 major series of online research papers.
European Union Libraries & Archives

Useful websites

European Union Official Website
EUROPA - European Union Newsroom
Eurostat
Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union situated in Luxembourg. Its mission is to provide high quality statistics for Europe.
CORDIS (Community Research and Development Information Services)
CORDIS is the European Commission's primary portal for results of EU-funded research projects.
EURAXESS - Researchers in Motion
EURAXESS - Researchers in Motion is a unique pan-European initiative delivering information and support services to professional researchers. Backed by the European Union and its Member States, it supports researcher mobility and career development, while enhancing scientific collaboration between Europe and the world.
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EURAXESS is also your gateway to Science4Refugees, a Commission's initiative helping refugee researchers find suitable jobs in today's challenging research landscape.Part of the initiative, is the Science4Refugees Research Buddies, supporting refugee scientists in finding European researchers to discuss problems, find solutions and study together, by matching their research field, scientific studies and interests.
ECLAS (European Commission Libraries Catalogue)
ECLAS focuses on publications of the European Union and has also an extensive collection of publications of international organisations such as the UN, OECD, World Bank, etc.
The catalogue contains a wealth of books and journals from commercial publishers in all EU languages. However, the largest part of our collections is in French, English and German.
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One of the strengths of the ECLAS catalogue is the collection of articles on EU-related matters, selected by our staff from the most relevant journals.
Many of the journals and articles listed in ECLAS are available online in electronic format. To this purpose, the bibliographic records for these items contain hyperlinks that provide access to the full electronic documents.