EUR-Lex Newsletter

Discover the latest developments on EUR-Lex: 03/2022

We are pleased to communicate the latest main changes of EUR-Lex.

Main improvements and new features of the latest release of EUR-Lex include:

1. Visualisation of relationships

2. To activate this experimental feature, select the check box to the top right of the homepage.

3. It is currently only available for legal acts.

4. You can see at a glance all the relationships between an act and the documents related to it.

5. In the Document information page, click Show relationship graph. The central node represents the act, with all the nodes around it representing related documents. Documents of the same type (amendments, delegated acts, consolidated versions…) have nodes of the same colour.

6. Nodes with a ‘+’ icon indicate that further subcategories of documents are available.

7. Nodes with a ‘file’ icon represent documents. Click them to go to the related document pages. When you hover over these nodes, the CELEX numbers of the documents appear. If the node represents a procedure, a specific icon is displayed.

8. A filter table lets you display different document categories.

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   Replacing CELEX with short titles

10. To activate this experimental feature, select the check box to the top right of the homepage.

11. It is currently only for links to treaties and case-law and is available first in English.

12. The links pointing to documents are normally clickable CELEX numbers. To make these links more meaningful, we are gradually replacing them with plain text.

13. Example: A link to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union will be TFEU (2016) instead of 12016E043.

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    Consolidated texts

15. The list of consolidated versions of an act is now displayed by default to the left of the screen (in desktop view). If some versions do not concern the user interface language, the information icon is displayed (). This is the case when an act is corrected by corrigenda only in some languages, and as a result, the consolidation is also done in these languages only.

16. In the Document information page of the consolidated text, a new graphical timeline shows the points in time when the act was modified. It also lets you navigate between different versions. Click the pins to go to the document page of the consolidated versions (or initial legal act).

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    Personal account section – revamp

18. We have made the registration process to create a EUR-Lex account easier thanks to simple, clear steps and additional guidance.

19. Once registered, you can access specific functionalities. You can:

    • save documents and searches
    • create alert notifications (RRS feeds) to help you stay up-to-date with any new publications on a selected topic
    • export a large number of documents
    • set personal preferences, etc.
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    Help pages – revamp

21. We have redesigned the layout of the help pages by creating a new menu with content structured into 6 main sections. We are also gradually updating the text on these pages.

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    Links to documents

23. When you want to link to EUR-Lex documents, you can use two features on the left-hand side menu of any document page: Up-to-date link and Permanent link.

24. We have improved the text that describes these two features.

25. Up-to-date link displays a link in your browser that will always direct you to the up-to-date version of the document and any pending modifiers (amending acts or corrigenda).

26. Permanent link displays a link in your browser that will always direct you to the version of the document you are currently viewing.

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    Statistics on legal acts

28. The statistics on legal acts now also include the ECB acts.

29. Advanced search – frames for search fields

30. To improve web accessibility, we have inserted frames around the search fields in the Advanced search.

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    Searches based on the ECLI identifier

32. Searches based on the European Case-Law Identifier (ECLI) will also render results from the European e-Justice Portal of the European Commission, via a link.

National transpositions measures on EUR-Lex

We are happy to inform you that EUR-Lex collection of national transposition measures is richer in 2022, with new countries providing the texts of their measures. It is an important step to increase transparency in law making and improves access to law in the European legal space as it helps understand how a particular directive is transposed into national legislation of the different Member States.

In 2022, the new countries that contribute enriching the collection are:

• Bulgaria, Lithuania and Sweden, with the texts of their national transposition measures
• Spain and Latvia, with links to the official website, in addition to already provided texts

About National transposition measures on EUR-Lex

Notification of national transposition measures to the Commission is mandatory.

The publication of the texts of these measures on EUR-Lex happens based on agreement of the Member States. Otherwise, the Publications Office only publishes the general metadata (such as the title, identifier, author Member State and transposed directive).

Those Member States that agreed to have the texts of their transposition measures published on EUR-Lex have the possibility of choosing whether they will provide:

• • a file containing the text of the measure as notified to the Secretariat-General of the Commission,
  • a link to the Member State's national website displaying the national measure,
  • the European Legislation Identifier (ELI) linking to the national measure and providing some standard metadata.

At 31 December 2021, national transposition measures made available on EUR-Lex were as follows:

• France, Luxembourg, Austria, Malta and Poland: ELI links
• Estonia, Slovenia and Poland: web links
• Cyprus, Czechia, Greece, Spain, Latvia, Malta and Poland: texts of the measures.