European Databases | EUR-Lex

EUR-Lex is the official database of the Publications Office of the European Union and has been in operation since 1998.

• The database provides comprehensive access to more than 1 million legal documents. Among other things, the Founding treaties, legal acts of the EU institutions, EU case law, International agreements and EFTA documents can be accessed.
• Since July 1, 2013, the Official Journal of the European Union is being published via EUR-Lex. The Official Journals become binding and have legal force upon publication in the database. They are available from the very first issue of December 1952.
• The available documents provide additional information, such as references to other legal texts, date of entry into force and interpretation of case law. EUR-Lex also maintains its own multilingual and multidisciplinary thesaurus (EuroVoc).
• EUR-Lex makes it possible to follow the various procedural steps leading up to the adoption of a legal act.
• The database is updated daily to keep it up to date.
• EUR-Lex averages around 4 million hits per month. In 2020, the website had just over 27 million visitors. In total, around 18 million texts were consulted in 2020.

• Both the database and the available documents are accessible in all 24 official languages of the EU.
• Documents can be viewed in three language versions at the same time and are available in DOC, PDF and HTML formats. The most frequently accessed texts are in PDF format.
• Consolidated texts and summaries of EU legislation are provided for reader-friendly use.