Introduction|Using EUCLID for Research on the European Union| Background Reference and Documentation |Major Institutions of the European Union |Activities of the European Union |Policy Institutes and Think Tanks for the European Union | EU articles, papers| Political Science and Social Science Databases | Statistical Resources

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This guide is not meant to be exhaustive in nature, but rather should provide you with a starting point for your research on the European Union. It outlines and describes the major institutions of the European Union, where to locate materials on their functioning and activities, and where to find primary materials on the organization. You will also find statistical resources here as well as general social science databases for locating articles and other secondary sources.

One general note that you should keep in mind is that the Macmillan Law Library at Emory is an official depository of European Union materials. There you will find many primary documents and reports from the European Union. These documents are located primarily on the 4th floor. The Law library has restricted borrowing privileges from non-law students; many EU materials are classified as reference and can not be checked out. You will know that you have found a EC/EU doc in EUCLID by the designation "EC-DOCS." You can perform a complex search in EUCLID to restrict your findings to ECDOCS.

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Using EUCLID for European Union Research

To find books, journal holdings, music, videos or other materials located at any of the Emory libraries, search EUCLID. You can search EUCLID by keywords or phrases, author, title or periodical title. For better search results, try using Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT).

General European Union subject headings

• European Union
• European Commission
• European Parliament
• European Court of Justice
• European Council
• Council of Ministers
• Europe--Politics and Government
• Europe--Economic Conditions

General Note: The subject heading "European Union" or "European Communities" may be subdivided geographically to indicate relationships with specific regions or countries, e.g. European Union--Great Britain. Works discussing collectively the member countries of the European Union as a geographic region are entered under "European Union" or "European Union countries".

More specific subject headings :

• Europe Foreign Relations [+country]
• European Union countries Foreign Relations
• European Union countries foreign economic relations
• European Union + [country] (for specific politics of a member state in relation to the European Union)
• Europe Defenses
• Europe Military Policy
• Europe Armed Forces
• Intergovernmental Cooperation European Union countries
• Foreign Trade Regulation European Union Countries

You can also type in some of the above subject headings and add on a country. Then, choose the browse option and click on the "subject" field. For example, Europe foreign relations United States.***Note that prior to 1992, the Library of Congress designated the EU countries heading above as European Economic Community Countries [with additional subheadings, just as for the European Union Countries heading].***

Remember that European Community/Union documents that are held at the Law Library will be designated by an "EC-DOCS" location. Check the full-record to determine whether or not the item can be checked out.

 

 

General European Politics Reference

• Encyclopedia of the European Union

JN30.E52 (Reference--General and Law)
Organized A-Z by topic including relevant terms, countries, organizations, events, treaties, etc.
• Penguin Companion to the European Union

Reference JN30.B35
• Handbook on European Enlargement

Reference KJE5089.H36
• Directory of EU Information Sources

LAW Z674.5.E8
• Europe: A Concise Encyclopedia from Aachen to Zollverein

JN30.L4 (Stacks)
• The European Union Encyclopedia and Directory

Reference HC241.2 E8334
• Eurojargon: A Dictionary of the European Union Acronyms, Abbreviations and Sobriquets

Reference HC241.2 .R25
• Dictionary of the European Union
  Reference HC241.2 .P52
• European Union in the U.S.

Excellent overview of the European Union; includes law and policy overviews, European Union basics, institutions, an A-Z of European Union websites, etc.
• Chronological History of the European Union

HC240 .V258 (Stacks)
• Regional Surveys of the World

Western Europe (HC240 .W37)
Central/Eastern Europe (HC244 .A1 C46)
Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia (HC244 .A1 E293)
Excellent surveys, divided up by region, that outlines social, demographic, financial, economic, and cultural trends and developments in each country. A nice set of summary statistics are presented as is a directory of important government officials. An essential guide. Older editions are located in the stacks.
• Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies, Volume 4 (Europe)

Reference HC15.W673

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Principal European Union Institutions

**European Commission**
The European Commission serves as the primary legislative and policymaking body of the EU. The Commission is comprised of more than 20 commissioners selected by member states. The Commission is broken down into so-called "Directorates-General," which refer to specific policy areas. Each commissioner has his/her own portfolio(s). The Commission is supposed to represent and uphold the interests of the European Union as a whole, whereas the European Council represents the interests of the member-states.

Note that legislation in the EU is made in several different manners (by cooperation, assent, consultation or "co-decision"). Most legislation is enacted by the Parliament, Commission, and Council. The Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions play more of a consultative role in the legislative process. For a more detailed summary of the EU legislative process, please go to http://europa.eu.int/institutions/decision-making/index_en.htm There is also a guide for the co-decision procedure, located at http://ue.eu.int/codec/en/index.htm

The Official Journal of the European Union is the principal source of EU legislative documentation. Hard copies of the Official Journal are held at the Law Library (KJE908 .J6). Note that prior to 1973, the OJ was not published in English (due to the UK's late accession). The Official Journal, according to the Princeton guide on EU research is "to the US researcher . . . a combination of the Statutes at Large, the US Treaty Series, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Register and the Congressional Record.

Online full-text of the Official Journal is available from around 1998-present. You can search for other documents in the OJ, but this is only bibliographic information.

**European Parliament**
The European Parliament, first elected in 1979, remains a rather weak legislative body. The 626 members are directly elected by EU member citizens. The EP may request that the Commission propose legislation, but can not propose legislation itself. However, it can withhold approval of legislation and must approve the EU budget. The official website of the EP contains background information, debates, legislation, etc. Some of the highlights include:

OEIL: The Legislative Observatory

Subjects of Current Interest allows the researcher to pull up all procedures by major topic areas such as enlargement, economic and monetary affairs, employment, police and judicial cooperation and consumer policy. Not all subjects are covered at any given time.
Activities of the Institutions provides results and forecasts of Parliament and Council legislative activities for a 200-day period. One can also check on, by Parliament Committee or relevant Council by topic, the number of procedures at each stage, i.e., in committee, first or second Parliament reading, awaiting Council common position or in conciliation.
Legislative Dossiers and Research contains an individual procedural file for each item in the decision-making process. Each file allows the user to follow a procedure step-by-step and obtain information on its evolution, to determine what stage has been reached and to find forecasts for the next stages.

Plenary Sessions

Here you'll find documents from the 4th and 5th parliamentary terms as well as indices (by subject, speaker, etc.) for the 2nd and 3rd terms. You can perform searches for agendas, debates, reports, minutes, motions for resolutions, and texts adopted by the Parliament. You can also watch meetings in real time (séance en direct).

Legislative Summaries

Here you will find concise summaries of EU legislative activity in a number of key subject areas. For more detailed summaries, please visit http://europa.eu.int/documents/factsheets/index_en.htm.

**Council of the European Union**
This institution should not be confused with the above European Council. Ministers from each of the member-states from various policy areas are represented in the Council. Depending on the issue on the agenda, each country will be represented by the minister responsible for that subject (foreign affairs, finance, social affairs, transport, agriculture, etc.). There is a revolving presidency of six months (although the new European Constitution, if ratified by the member states, would alter the term). Please note that the Council of Europe is a completely different and independent international organization/entity (and actually predates the European Union).

**European Court of Justice and Court of First Instance**
The ECJ adjudicates disputes over EU law. EU law trumps the law of member states. The Court of First Instance is below the ECJ and serves as an intermediate appellate court before cases are taken to the ECJ.

There are several ways to gain access to EU legal materials electronically:

• EUR-Lex (Access to European Law)

EUR-Lex provides direct free access to European Union law. The system makes it possible to consult the Official Journal of the European Union and it includes inter alia the treaties, legislation, case-law and legislative proposals. Case Law (opinions, judgments, etc.) back to 1997 is available. Similar information is also searchable via Curia.
• LexisNexis Legal Research

Go to LexisNexis Academic and choose the option for "legal research," then select EU Law (CELEX) under "International Legal Materials." The database is broken down into several different components, including legislation, parliamentary questions, prefatory acts, treaties and cases. Note that the
parliamentary questions do not concern the ECJ, but rather the Commission and European Parliament. To quote directly from the LN site, "The Parliamentary Questions file contains written questions and answers, and references to oral questions, submitted by European Parliament members to the Council and Commission at question time."
• United Nations Treaty Series
  All the major treaties of the EU can be found in the UN Treaty Database.

Print Versions

For print versions of ECJ case law and decisions, you will need to visit the Law Library. 1973-present proceedings are located at KJE924.3 .P76.

 

Other Institutions:

• Economic and Social Committee
• Committee of the Regions

Activities of the European Union

A more complete list of such activities is located on the principal Europa webpage. Each "activity" is then divided into key resources, broken down by the institution involved.

• Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)
• Agriculture
• Competition
• Development
• Economic and Monetary Union
• Enlargement
• External Trade
• Human Rights
• Justice and Home Affairs

 

Political Institutes, Think Tanks, Centers w/Europe focus

• Jean Monnet Working Papers
• Center for European Reform
• Center for European Policy Studies
• European University Institute--Robert Schumann Center [European Research Papers Archive]
• Archive of European Integration

Also, check out:

• CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online) (1991-present)
  Publishes a wide range of scholarship, dating from 1991 forward, that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences. Database is searchable on several fields.
• Foreign Policy
• Cato Institute
• Brookings Policy Briefs
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
• Council on Foreign Relations
• Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation Working Papers

Note that this is just a handful of the agencies and institutes archived by CIAO; for a full listing, visit http://www.ciaonet.org/main/wps.html.

 

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Please be sure to consult the principal political science subject guide for more general databases and resources.

Many of the databases below are now powered by SFX technology. When you search library databases, such as Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost), Web of Science (ISI), or Worldcat (FirstSearch), and many others, you’ll often see the button. Clicking on the button will bring up a menu of Emory’s (electronic) holdings for the journal (if any).

European Union Databases

**Europa: European Union Online**

This is the principal website of the European Union and serves as a portal for most institutions, activities, documentation, and services of the European Union. Of particular interest is the current affairs and news section, located on the home page. The Documents section of the frontpage leads to The Bulletin of the European Union, which are reports the activities of the European Commission and other institutions of the EU. Activities refers to the different issue areas in which the EU is involved, including agriculture, business, economics, health, security, transport, and many more. Of special interest as well is the European Law section of the Documents page. Scroll down further in this guide for more information on European legal information and documentation.

European Union Documents

Index/portal to green papers from Europa, white papers, reports, legislation, documents. from various European Union institutions. Of particular interest are the legislative summaries (Scadplus) which are searchable. On Europa's homepage, click on "Where to find EU Documents--An Online Library." The search tab is rather small, at the top of the page--or you can go directly to http://europa.eu.int/documents/factsheets/index_en.htm. It is recommended that one perform an advanced search, otherwise the number of results may be overwhelming. Availability of full-text documents differs widely among institutions. Paper copies of many documents should be available at the Law Library. You can perform a search in EUCLID by keyword or title. You can also employ the institution as the author.

ECLAS--European Communities Libraries Catalogue

Documents and Publications of the European Communities

1983-present coverage. Contains principal European Union documents, official publications of EU institutions, and articles from journals & periodicals that deal with the EU, and monographs. There are many searching options that are available; URLs are provided when available. Otherwise, you will need to check EUCLID or eJournals for material availability. Print document catalogues are also available at Law (Call Number: Z7165). You can also the Publications of the European Communities indices, again located at Law (same general area as above). Online catalogue ia available at http://europa.eu.int/publications.

EUR-LEX
Eur-Lex is the principal portal for legislation, case law, official procedures, etc.

Euractiv
EurActiv.com is the independent media portal fully dedicated to EU affairs. Provides one with a detailed agenda of European affairs as well as a clickable list of policy areas and activities within them.

Social Science Databases

Academic Search Complete is a great place to start for scholarly research. The social science databases that follow are much more comprehensive and specific to the social sciences, whereas Academic Search Premier is broadly multidisciplinary.

• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (1967-present)
  Supplies up-to-date bibliographic information and research within the political science discipline and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy.
• PAIS International & Archive
  Includes bibliographic records from the literature of public policy, social policy and the social sciences. Types of publications indexed include books, periodicals and selected local, state, national and international government documents. Note that you can search WPSA abstracts at the same time as PAIS. Click on "specific databases," choose WPSA and at the bottom of the page and finally, click on "return to search."
• Social Science Abstracts (1983-present)
  Indexes core periodicals in the fields of anthropology, economics, geography, law and criminology, political science, social work, sociology, and international relations.
• Web of Science
  Particularly useful for citations. Because the information stored about each article includes the article's cited reference list (i.e., its bibliography), you can also search for articles that cite a known author or work. Be sure you limit your search to the social science portion of the database (there are also science and humanities sections).

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For further statistical information, please visit the Electronic Data Center page on data sources for the European Union, http://einstein.library.emory.edu/courses/eu.html

• Eurostat

The official statistical agency of the European Union--includes data on numerous economic, social and demographic topics. Easily downloadable data, available in many cases at the regional level. A Eurostat CD-Rom is also available at the Electronic Data Center (EDC).
• SourceOECD
  This online service provides full-text access to OECD studies, periodicals, and statistics from 1998 forward. Included are annuals, outlooks, policy reviews, conference proceedings, analytical reports, guidelines, working papers, all periodicals, and 27 statistical databases.
• World Development Indicators
  Contains statistical data for over 550 development indicators and time series data from 1960-2000 for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. Results can be scaled, indexed against a particular year, viewed by percentage change, and charted.
• Eurobarometer Homepage

Homepage for the Eurobarometer series of European public opinion polls. Eurobarometers are also available from the ICPSR. The Data Center holds an extensive collection of Eurobarometers, for both Western and Eastern Europe.
• European Commission Public Opinion Page
  The European Union has been conducting a series of interviews with the European public since the early 1970s. The surveys provide a dynamic measure of European attitudes toward economic, political, and social attitudes within the European Union. The Public Opinion page provides access to a wide variety of reports produced from the Eurobarometer series of studies.

 

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