International Governmental Organizations
EU Legislative Institutions
Eur-Lex. Primary database for European Union law and legislation. Includes the Official Journal of the European Union, regulations, decisions, directives, treaties, consolidated versions of legislation, and judgments by the EU Court of Justice. For information prior to 2005, please use CELEX.
CELEX: Access to European Union law. Comprehensive source of European Union law, offering full-text of European Union legislation, preparatory documents, case law of the European Court of Justice, treaties, and parliamentary questions. Note: CELEX is no longer updates. For materials published after Jan. 1, 2005, please use EUR-Lex.
Legislative Observatory (OEIL). Database with references for procedures and documents of all the institutions involved in the interinstitutional legislative procedure and for those relating to the work of the European Parliament.
PreLex Database for monitoring the decision making process between EU institutions. Difficult to use - important for tracking the history process of EU legislation.
Finding Information about EU Legislation
The following subject headings are good starting points to search for books on EU legislation in the online catalog:
- Legislation -- European Economic Community countries
- Legislation -- European Union countries
- Legislative bodies -- European Economic Community countries
- Legislative bodies -- European Union countries
EU Institutions
Council of the European Union: This is the main decision-making institution of the EU. It is made up of ministers from each member state. The Council passes laws jointly with the European Parliament. The council also negotiates international agreements and makes decisions on foreign and economic policy measures.
European Commission. This institution proposes legislation to Parliament and the Council, administers and implements Community policies, enforces Community law (jointly with the Court of Justice) and negotiates international agreements.
- President of the European Commission
- Representatives from Member States
- Directorates General and Services. The Commission is divided into departments known as Directorates-General similar to government ministries. Each Directorate-General is supervised by a civil servant who reports directly to the Commissioner. In addition, there are other services and offices within the commission that perform various administrative functions.
European Parliament. The EU's parliamentary body is made up of of directly elected citizens of EU member states. Together with the Council, it constitutes the legislative branch of the institutions of the Union.
Organization
- Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)
- President of the EU Parliament
- Parliamentary Committees
- Delegations
- Political Groups
- Committee of Independent Experts
Documents
- Bulletins of the European Parliament
- Common Positions
- Policy Department Publications
- Public Hearings
- Written Declarations
Other Resources
- European Parliament Policy Department Publications. Database of documents produced by EP Policy Departments (and previously by the former Directorate-General for Research).
- Legislative Observatory (OEIL). Database with references for procedures and documents of institutions involved in the inter-institutional legislative procedure relating to the work of the European Parliament.
- Parliamentary Questions. Database of questions posed by the European Parliament to the Council and the Commission, searchable by author, political group, etc.
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