EUR-Lex: Towards A Common Legal Portal

From Information to Knowledge 15
M.A. Biasiotti and S. Faro (Eds.)

IOS Press, 2011
© 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-988-2-15
EUR-Lex: Towards a Common Legal

Portal
Els BREEDSTRAET
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg
Abstract. An overview of current scenario going on at EU level in the EUR-Lex

portal anticipating future trends and directions of this relevant official information
source is given by this contribution. The current status of the EU portal is briefly
outlined. All changes and adjustments implemented in the new EUR-Lex system
are analyzed focusing the attention on the user-friendliness, accessing options,
searching functionalities, personalization, interaction of other websites and users.
The new EUR-Lex will go live in 2012; its transformation into a unique juridical
portal containing all steps of the legislative procedure and the jurisprudence and
providing access to national legislation will consistently enhance the role of EUR-
Lex as a fundamental tool for stakeholders for deeply getting in touch with every-
day EU institutions activities and results.
Keywords. EU law, EUR-Lex, legal portal.
Introduction
EUR-Lex gives free access to the official public legal documents published by the
institutions and bodies of the European Union.
EUR-Lex is managed by the Publications Office of the European Union, located in
Luxembourg. As publishing house of the European institutions, the Publications Office
Copyright © 2011. IOS Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
is responsible for producing and distributing all the publications of the European Union,
on all media and by all means.
The current EUR-Lex website exists since 1998. In order to become a common
legal portal, it will be replaced by a completely new version. The new EUR-Lex will
aim at facilitating access to EU Law. In this respect, the system will undergo technical
changes and will offer new functionalities to the end- user. It will also provide a more
complete view of the life cycle of legal documents by integrating PreLex and Trans-
JAI.
1. EUR-Lex Now
The content of the EUR-Lex website amounts to some 440,000 documents available in
23 language versions (3,650,000 texts in total). Each year more than 12,000 new
documents enrich the database. The content of the database goes back to the origins of
the EU, with the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951.
EUR-Lex displays European Union law in multiple ways:
From Information to Knowledge : Online Access to Legal Information: Methodologies, Trends and Perspectives, edited by M.A.
Biasiotti, and S. Faro, IOS Press, Incorporated, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cuhk-ebooks/detail.action?docID=836219.
Created from cuhk-ebooks on 2020-11-02 01:49:37.
16 E. Breedstraet / EUR-Lex: Towards a Common Legal Portal
x Direct access to the Official Journal - The Official Journal of the European
Union (OJ) is available in all official languages of the European Union. It
consists of two related series (L for legislation and C for information and
notices) and a supplement (S for public procurement). The C series includes
an electronic section, known as the OJ C E, which contains documents made
available exclusively in an electronic format. Also available are the OJ C A,
OJ L M and the special editions in the languages of the last two enlargements.
x Collections - The EU law texts are divided into collections by document type:
treaties, international agreements, legislation in force, preparatory acts, case
law and parliamentary questions.
Moreover an editorial team publishes newsletters presenting new functionalities
and giving updates on, e.g., technical issues or ongoing surveys. Besides this, the user
can find on the homepage a selection of new documents and a link to new thematic
files. These files contain a selection of legal documents on specific fields of EU activity.
2. EUR-Lex in the Near Future
2.1. Why Change?
The Common Legal Portal
EUR-Lex will be transformed into a common legal portal. This portal will be an
integrated and consolidated information database, giving access to EU law and related
documents. Amongst others, it will contain preparatory acts, EU legislation such as
regulations and directives, EU and national case law and national implementing
measures. Most of the legislative content is already available in EUR-Lex, but to
retrieve some documents and information, other applications have to be consulted. For
example: PreLex gives a view of the life cycle of a document, from proposal to legally
binding act published in the OJ; Trans-JAI allows access to documents of the
institutions’ registers in the field of freedom, security and justice and N-Lex enables
users to search through national legislative databases. PreLex and Trans-JAI will be
integrated into EUR-Lex in due time.
User-friendliness
The EUR-Lex online service is highly appreciated by professionals, public authorities

and NGOs both EU and worldwide, counting on average 7 million visits per month.
Despite this success, most novices, and even some experienced users, do not always
intuitively find what they need. Not enough help is offered on the site and the search
experience is not always satisfactory. For this reason it is important to improve the
website according to current usability standards, taking into account the changing
needs and expectations of a very large and heterogeneous group of users.
Transformation Programme
The development of the new EUR-Lex is linked to the ongoing Transformation

programme at the Publications Office. This ambitious programme will set up the
E. Breedstraet / EUR-Lex: Towards a Common Legal Portal 17
technical conditions to ensure that information is available in any format and that it can
be re-used and/or enriched by end-users according to their needs.
The aim of the Transformation programme is to move from the current
dissemination approach with vertical ‘information silos’ per domain (general, legal,
public procurement and scientific documents) to horizontal common layers. This new
approach will result in a common content and metadata layer, the so-called CELLAR
(Common Content Repository and Common Metadata Repository). The CELLAR will
contain all information related to EU publications and the new EUR-Lex will be
connected to it.
The main principle of the programme is that the content will become independent
of its presentation, so as to achieve the dissociation of the content from its container.
Figure 1.The new EUR-Lex homepage
2.2. Main Changes
2.2.1. Accessing Content

The new website offers various ways to access content: by searching or by
navigating/browsing through different views. It aims at coupling fast response times
with high reliability. Several searches will be available depending on the needs of the
end user: a ‘Google like’ quick search, an advanced search and an expert search.
Searching
The new EUR-Lex offers an advanced multilingual search engine which facilitates
searching within documents, structured metadata and web pages. Powerful searching
capabilities allow different levels and combinations of search criteria (basic/simple,
advanced and expert search). It is possible to refine search results by faceted navigation,
a tag cloud and other means.
‘Google like’ Simple Search
This interface is mainly oriented towards occasional users. The simple search box is
available on every page giving access to legal content. A user can enter one or more
query terms and depending on the user’s language, the system automatically corrects
wrong spelling. The system looks for all documents that include the terms submitted,
regardless of their place and relative order in the document.
Advanced Search
The advanced search enables users to combine full-text searching with a multi-criteria
search based on metadata. In this way, users have more control over their search
experience. Examples of specific criteria that can be searched are: date, author,
category/domain (treaties, legislation, preparatory acts, etc.), keyword or subject matter
(including Eurovoc), language, document number, CELEX number and many more.
Via the advanced search, users can search in the complete EUR-Lex database, but
specific search forms dedicated to each collection of documents are also provided.
Expert Search
This search is available to registered users. It allows experienced users to construct and
combine complex search queries using all available metadata. Results can be visualised
and exported in a very flexible way.
Result List
After a search, the user obtains a list of results. By default, the following information is
displayed: CELEX number, title, date of document, author, type of act and available
text formats. The user can amend this selection and can choose for example not to
display the publication date but to show a list of Eurovoc descriptors instead. The user
can also change the number of results per page and the way they are ordered.
Registered users can save their preferences in a personal profile, so that the result list
will automatically be displayed in custom format.
From the result list, it is easy to select results and to save, print or e-mail them. A
search can directly be refined by using facets or the tag cloud. It is also possible to add
or delete search criteria after clicking on the link that leads back to the search form.
E. Breedstraet / EUR-Lex: Towards a Common Legal Portal 19
Search Results
From the result list search results will be easily accessible in all available formats and
languages. For each result different views are offered. The most important are:
x The text of the act. In this view it is possible to display up to three linguistic
versions of a given document side-by-side on the screen.
x The bibliographic notice, which contains direct links to referenced content.
This can be other documents on EUR-Lex or external content, such as a page
on OEIL (the legislative observatory of the European Parliament). For each
document published in the Official Journal, a link to the OJ is provided so that
the user may switch from the notice to the respective OJ, and vice-versa,
without having to restart the search.
x The historical view presents the ‘life cycle’ of a legal document (i.e. the
legislative procedure). Currently this information can be found in PreLex. The
new EUR-Lex will integrate the PreLex functionalities and data. This
integration will enable access to documents and information on legislative
procedures.
Browsing
Various ways to consult content according to type of document, chronological order,

subject matter classification, life-cycle of documents, etc. are offered. An example of a
new browsing feature is access to documents by institutions and bodies (European
Parliament, Council, Commission, Court of justice, Court of Auditors, …). In addition
the new website offers more directories than the current one:
x EU legislation in force
x EU legislation in preparation
x consolidated texts
x texts no longer in force
Within these directories EU legal texts (legislation and preparatory acts) are
indexed using 20 chapters of classification headings (subdivided into up to four levels
of subchapters). These chapters reflect the policy activities of the European Union
institutions and bodies. The directories are automatically generated and therefore
always up-to-date.
2.2.2. New graphic design

The new design assures a more user-friendly and consistent interface. Users can easily
navigate, thanks to different menus and a breadcrumb. The new EUR-Lex website
follows up-to-date WAI (Website Accessibility Initiative) guidelines to make sure that
it can be viewed, navigated and interacted with by anyone, particularly disabled people.
2.2.3. My EUR-Lex
Personalisation
The new EUR-Lex provides registered users with extra features and with the possibility
to personalise parts of the website. Personalisation includes customisation of homepage
and search results by setting preferences (such as the number of results displayed per
page) and using widgets. Widgets allow certain blocks of information to be folded or
unfolded, allowing the user to control how much information is displayed.
A personal space is provided for each registered user: My EUR-Lex. Here queries,
documents and RSS feeds can be saved and managed. My EUR-Lex is directly
accessible from anywhere on the website, allowing users, at any moment, quick access
to their favourite/most- used content. Registered users can perform further actions on
content or queries saved in My EUR-Lex. For example: view, download, print, send a
link by e-mail, etc. It will also be possible to edit searches or to create an RSS feed
based on a query.
Interaction with the EUR-Lex Website and with Other Users
The current notification service LexAlert is replaced by an integrated functionality

allowing users to register for predefined notifications and to create personalised
notifications based on search queries. They will be delivered in RSS format.
A social network provides registered users with the possibility to ask, consult and
answer questions on the EUR-Lex community.
Reuse of Content and Referencing
Every visitor will be able to easily select documents and to e-mail, print, save or export
them. Registered users will also be able to perform all of these actions on the content
and queries they saved in My EUR-Lex.
All web pages, search queries and search results are accessible by a unique, simple
and stable URL. This link can be used to link to EUR-Lex from any website. It is also
possible to send these links by e-mail or to save them as a favourite.
2.3. Planning. What Will Happen to the Current EUR-Lex?
The new EUR-Lex will go live in 2012, and for a period of 6 months, the existing and
the new websites will run in parallel.
3. Conclusion
The EUR-Lex online service is highly appreciated by professionals, public authorities

as well as by NGOs all over the Union and beyond. With an average of 7 million visits
per month, it provides access to over 3 million texts of European law in all languages.
The transformation of EUR-Lex into a unique juridical portal containing all steps of the
legislative procedure and the jurisprudence and providing access to national legislation
will consistently enhance the role of EUR-Lex as a fundamental tool for stakeholders
for deeply getting in touch with every-day EU institutions activities and results.

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From Information to Knowledge 15

M.A. Biasiotti and S. Faro (Eds.)

EUR-Lex: Towards a Common Legal

Abstract. An overview of current scenario going on at EU level in the EUR-Lex

Keywords. EU law, EUR-Lex, legal portal.

2. EUR-Lex in the Near Future

2.1. Why Change?

The Common Legal Portal

integrated into EUR-Lex in due time.

The EUR-Lex online service is highly appreciated by professionals, public authorities

The development of the new EUR-Lex is linked to the ongoing Transformation

Figure 1.The new EUR-Lex homepage

2.2. Main Changes

2.2.1. Accessing Content

‘Google like’ Simple Search

Various ways to consult content according to type of document, chronological order,

2.2.2. New graphic design

Interaction with the EUR-Lex Website and with Other Users

The current notification service LexAlert is replaced by an integrated functionality

Reuse of Content and Referencing

2.3. Planning. What Will Happen to the Current EUR-Lex?

The EUR-Lex online service is highly appreciated by professionals, public authorities

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