The starting place for all information on the Institutions of Europe is the Europa site. This is a many-layered site, attempting to provide information to several types of viewer, from children, students and adult viewers with many different types of interest, through to politicians and lawyers looking for the nitty gritty stuff of the EU. Indeed, this is probably one of the most complex sites in the world, with so many types of viewer, so many institutions and so many languages – anyone else’s design problems pale into insignificance!
Suddenly, this summer, the Europa site changed completely. Here are a few notes about the new site and the websites of some of the other Institutions of Europe.
Europa
To get to the first real page, you have to choose a “Welcome” phrase from the many languages offered on the opening page – choosing “Gateway to the European Union” establishes your language as English. The first main page is oriented to general information about the EU and offers you a wide variety of choices as to what to follow up next.
From “About the EU” and “Institutions and bodies” you will find the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice.
From another of the sections offered to you, called “Policies and Activities”, take “Policy areas” and you will then find “Justice Freedom & Security”. This has a series of important sub-sections including Treaties, Legislation in force, and stages prior to becoming law (Oeil and Prelex).
From “Documentation centre”, you will find “Legislation” as a section on its own.
You can in fact circle round and round these sections, either on purpose or by pure chance, since most legally-based sections are linked to the other sections!
Legislation
Take the “EU law in force” option, also referred to as EUR-Lex. This provides the Official Journal, Treaties, International Agreements, Legislation in force, Preparatory Acts, Case Law and Parliamentary Questions. The material which used to be in the CELEX system, previously only available on subscription, is available now without charge.
The “Summaries of EU laws” gives a summary of the laws by general topic, each with an introductory section on how the laws are structured.
The National law (N-Lex) section is just experimental so far. It is an attempt to link the EU law with the National laws on the same topic for all the countries of the EU and all languages – quite a project, if you think about it.
The “Legislation in preparation” section is probably the one which causes the most difficulty for people trying to find their way around the structures and processes of the European Parliament. The legislative observatory (also known as Å’IL – or eye in French) takes an “overview” of where the legislation is at present (it moves around a lot between committees, directorates, the commission, the council and Parliament itself).
The Current status of legislative packages, also known as PreLex, follows all Commission proposals (legislative and budgetary dossiers, conclusions of international agreements) and communications from their transmission to the Council or the European Parliament. This is actually an earlier stage than Å’IL but shows the origins and history of where legislation has come from.
Institutions of Europe online
On the European Parliament site you will find information on the history of the EU and its institutions, information on Parliament itself including organisation, powers and political role, topics covered by Parliament, agendas and agreed texts, information on the MEPs and (webstreamed) coverage of Parliamentary sessions. The site has newsy items on the front page.
The Court of Justice of the European Communities has its seat in Luxembourg and consists of three courts: the Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance (created in 1988) and the Civil Service Tribunal (created in 2004). Since their establishment, about 15,000 judgments have been delivered which are available on the site.
The European Commission provides information on policies of the EU and includes press releases, work programmes, information on Commissioners, speeches of key figures and access to Commission documents. It is an attractive site and designed to interest “ordinary” EU citizens.
The Council of Europe in Strasbourg provides a wider grouping than the European Union and any European state can become a member provided it ratifies the European Convention on Human Rights. (Note that this institution still uses the .int domain rather than the .eu. The .eu domain relates specifically to the European Community). There are 47 states at present, including several former Eastern European states, and there is a full Parliamentary organisation.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), also based at Strasbourg, provides a history of the institution and has recent judgments available and a searching facility. This searchable database of the case law of the supervisory organs of the European Convention on Human Rights, is known as “HUDOC” – Human Rights Documentation.
The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. Based at the Hague, in Holland, it began work in 1946, when it replaced the Permanent Court of International Justice which had functioned since 1922. The site offers the text of the official judgments (decisions) since 1946, advisory opinions, and orders, press releases and information on the process of current cases. The decisions are published in English and French, the two official languages of the Court.
Delia Venables is joint editor of this Newsletter.
Email delia@venables.co.uk.
