Official Journal C Series – Introduction

The Official Journal C (OJC) databases on the Justis service give access in electronic form to the full text of the C (Communication) Series of the Official Journal of the European Union.

The C Series of the Official Journal of the European Union covers proposed legislation (COM DOCS), notices of cases in the European Court of Justice, activities of the European Parliament and other miscellaneous documents. Any document which is not classified as secondary legislation is published in the C Series, for example a new treaty or convention may be found in the C Series. The CELEX database also includes documents from the Official Journal C Series.

There are two databases, which are updated every 2–3 weeks.

Main Database

The Main database contains all documents from the Official Journal C Series except the Minutes of the European Parliament sittings, starting from 1990.

Minutes of EP Proceedings Database

This database contains the Minutes of the European Parliament sittings from the Official Journal C Series, starting from 1990.

The printed Official Journal C Series is published daily and includes information and notices:

Information and Notices

This includes entries from each of the main institutions of the European Community, i.e. the Commission, the Court of Justice, the Council, the Parliament and the Court of Auditors. Other entries include the value of the ecu, lists of prices, entries on state aids, recapitulation of tenders, etc.

Entries from the Court of Justice occur two or three times each month and consist of short summaries of judgments given by the various chambers of the Court, including the Court of First Instance, and are the first official publication of any decision of the Court. Other entries from the Court contain the first reference of any new case sent to the Court from a member state; this type of entry will be affected by later entries which refer to the progress of the case.

Also included are:

contents of the C E series
notices of a concentration (i.e. a merger or takeover)
notices of the formation of a European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG)
invitations to tender
open competitions

and various other unclassified documents.

Special Editions

In addition to these regular entries of the OJ C there are special editions devoted entirely to one particular group of documents. These publications are:

Minutes of a session of the European Parliament
Oral and Written Questions submitted by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and the answers given
Minutes of the meetings of the Economic and Social Committee and opinions given.
New Treaties – e.g. Maastricht, Amsterdam
Reports of Joint Assemblies, such as the Joint Assembly of Convention concluded between the EEC and the African, Caribbean and Pacific States.
Notices of the formation of a European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG)
Invitations to tender
Open competitions

C E Series – Preparatory Acts

The C E series is not available in printed form. It contains all the proposals for new legislation in the form of COM DOCS and any subsequent amendments to any particular proposals. Each COM DOC consists of a preamble followed by the text of the proposed legislation. The preamble is useful since it is, in effect, the explanatory memorandum which gives the reasons for the new legislation. The opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on each new proposal is published in this part. COM DOCS can be found in the CELEX Proposals database, as well as in the OJC database.

More information about the Official Journal C Series database