European Union Law Information Resources
Concise overview of the European Union's institutions and sources of law by Sarah How at Cornell Law Library. The guide includes links to recommended EU research guides and useful EU websites.
European Union Law
European Parliament Fact Sheets
The European Parliament's website, Europarl, provides access to a collection of basic fact sheets for members of the public about the history, current organisation and policies of the European Union. The fact sheets are grouped under six main headings: How the European Community Words, Citizens' Europe, The Internal Market, Common Policies, Economic and Monetary Union and The Union's External Relations.
EUobserver
The EUobserver is an independent EU news service published by EUobserver.com. Professional users have to pay for a licence but it is free for private use on a home computer. There is a paid access option for premium content. The site contains reports on politics, economics, foreign affairs, social affairs, justice and home affairs, defence and EU institutional affairs. Users can sign up for a daily, twice-daily or weekly email newsletter.
European Judicial Network (EJN)
The EU's European Judicial Network (EJN) aims to foster judicial cooperation between EU member states in criminal matters and to provide information and advice on mutual legal assistance to legal practitioners. The website outlines the judicial systems of 35 European countries, including all the EU member states. Legal forms are provided and there is a large amount of information about the European Arrest Warrant. There is a multilingual legal glossary (SOLON) and a link to a page of international legal instruments concerning police and judicial cooperation.
Trade Issues : Trade in services
Web pages presented and maintained by the European Commission's Directorate General for Trade in order to help service providers in the EU to operate around the world. Includes substantial information about EU participation in the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and some details of it activities regarding regional and bilateral agreements. There is a page devoted to relevant legislation, reports and other publications; another page covers e-commerce and services.
European Union Treaties
Treaties section of the European Union's law website, EUR-Lex. Provides the founding treaties, accession treaties and treaties amending the founding treaties, plus protocols. The treaties include the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the Treaty on European Union (TEU). Consolidated versions are offered for the TFEU, TEU and a few of the other treaties. The interface is in all the official languages of the EU, but not all of the treaties are in all these languages.
European Documentation Centre: University of Mannheim
Website describing the work, facilities and organisation of the European Documentation Centre at the University of Mannheim in Germany and offering a comprehensive collection of links to the European Union's information network and EU documentation. EU web links are provided; there is a section presenting EU information by subject area (under "Politikbereichen der EU"); there are also details about EU information networks, particularly those based in Germany. The site is in German or English.
European Parliament and the IGC 2000
This site was created by the European Parliament to provide information on its involvement in the Inter-Governmental Conference 2000, which paved the way for alterations to EU treaties so that new member states could join. In addition to archived news releases, it includes an overview of how EU treaties are revised and the role in this of the European Parliament. It also provides access to numerous full-text documents produced by the Parliament on this issue; they include parliamentary committee reports, resolutions, debates and speeches.
EUR-Lex: legislative procedures
The successor to PreLex, this part of the EUR-Lex website provides a database tracking the progress of proposals for EU legislation. The information provided includes details of the latest stage of the legislative or decision-making procedure, as well as previous stages, and links to associated documents such as COM documents, common positions, reports of the European Parliament, the Official Journal of the European Union and press releases. The site is available in all the official languages of the EU.
European Ombudsman
The European Ombudsman (EO) is appointed by the European Parliament to consider complaints about the administration of European Union bodies and to adjudicate in cases of maladministration; the Ombudsman also carries out own-initiative inquiries. The EO website includes a database of pending and concluded cases; case documentation can also be browsed by type of document (decision, recommendation, and so on) and year (1990s onwards).