Guide to European Union Resources

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.

Major EU Materials

• 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.
• Accessing European Union Information, an excellent overview of the legislative process and documentation.from the Delegation of the European Commission to the United States
  • Provides an excellent overview of the institutions of the EU, their publications, and tracking legislative activity. Includes information about the official electronic databases and Web sites of the European Union. 
• Use "A citation manual for European Community materials." Fordham International Law Journal, v. 19 (Feb. '96), p. 1317-34, for help in unravelling EU citations.

• 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, International 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 International stacks.
  • 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 Access. 1990- HC 241.2 E72 Index shelves.
  • 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 Latest in Reference. Earlier years in International Stacks.
  • 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.
• Eurostat Yearbook. 1995- 1000 E20ST Eu74y Latest in Reference. Earlier years in International Stacks.
  
• General Report on the Activities of the European Union. 1967- 1000 E19R299 Latest in Reference. Earlier years in International Stacks.
  • 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.

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 Statistical Universe.

EU Produced Indexes:

•  EUR-OP: European Community as a Publisher: 1000 E19 P961 Index Shelves.
  • 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.
•  EUDOR European Union Document Delivery Service
  • The EUDOR service is an online database of EU legislative materials combined with an online ordering facility for document delivery . It indexes the Official Journal, COM Documents, merger decisions and Consolidated Texts of Community Legislation. See the Products page for dates of coverage. EUDOR can be used as an index to the microfiche collections of the OJ and COM documents available in the Government Publications Library. 
• Publications of the European Communities: 1000 E19 P961 Index Shelves
  • 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 Shelves
  • 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 Shelves
  • 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. (Microfiche)
  • 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 microform alcove in the microfiche drawers. 

•  SCAD Bibliographic Database
  • "SCAD is a bibliographical database containing references of more than 250.000 documents divided in 4 sectors: Sector A : Community legislation; Sector B : Official publications; Sector C : Articles from periodicals; Sector D : Opinions from the two sides of industry." 

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. 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.

• CELEX
  • "CELEX is a comprehensive and authoritative information source on European Community law. It offers multilingual, full text coverage of a wide range of legal acts including the founding treaties, binding and non-binding legislation, opinions and resolutions issued by the EU Institutions and consultative bodies and the case law of the European Court of Justice" Requires login and password. Seek staff assistance in Government Publications.
• Consolidated Texts--Legislation in Force
  • Includes the original instrument and any amending instruments. Arranged by analytic structure or choronology. Read the explanatory note for information on the presentation of the information.
• EUR-Lex
  • Provides access to issues of the Official Journal C and Official Journal L, Treaties, and case law.
• Texts of COM documents published in OJ C
• Legislative Observatory
  • A database which includes status of legislation in progress, with commentary on parliamentary actions , citations to documents, and selected full text documents. Use the Procedures expected at part-session or Decision Making Process: Search by Single Criterion for searching.