This page introduces useful sources for finding information on the European Union (EU), whether for seminar papers, theses, or general research. The number of available resources can be difficult to navigate at first. Below you will find a few pointers and reflections to help you get started. If you focus on the resources below, I am sure you will find enough material for your purposes.
The Treaties
The most important starting point for EU research is the Treaties constituting the European Union. They go back to the “Treaty establishing the European Economic Community” (TEEC), which was signed in 1957 and entered into force in 1958. The Treaty of Rome has been amended several times since. For example, the Merger Treaty of 1965 united the formerly three separate organisations — the EEC, the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) — with separate Commissions and Councils into the European Communities. For a visual overview, see this diagram.
The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 first added a separate Treaty on European Union (TEU), complementing what at that point became the European Community (EC). With the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997, all articles were renumbered, which means you need to be careful when comparing legal bases before and after Amsterdam. In another major departure from previous practice, the Lisbon Treaty turned the “Treaty establishing the European Community” (TEC) into the “Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union” (TFEU).
To complicate matters further, when people referred to the European Union before Lisbon, it would often have been more accurate to speak of the European Community. In academic publications, you may find a footnote explaining that, for reasons of consistency, “European Union” will be used throughout, except where the difference matters. You can find a comprehensive overview of all Treaty revisions on EUR-Lex.
Secondary legislation
Based on the Treaties, the EU institutions can pass a number of legal instruments. The various types are set out in Art. 288 TFEU. Regulations are binding and must be applied in their entirety across the EU. Directives set out goals that all EU countries must achieve but leave it to each member state to enact laws suitable for achieving these goals. Decisions are binding on those to whom they are addressed, such as an individual company, and are directly applicable. Finally, recommendations and opinions are non-binding instruments.
The exact procedure needed to enact EU instruments can vary. Nevertheless, most laws today are adopted in line with the “Ordinary Legislative Procedure” (OLP) set out in Art. 294 TFEU, which puts the Council and the European Parliament (EP) on an equal footing. When you have a specific legislative act in front of you and know little about it, it is often useful to read the recitals at the beginning. They usually provide a good introduction.
EUR-Lex is the most comprehensive database of everything related to EU law. You can find not only the final laws but, by clicking on the “procedure” tab, also retrace the various steps leading to their enactment, beginning with the Commission proposal. This can help you understand the different EU institutions’ positions, which can be empirically demanding but is often necessary to understand your “case”. A useful glossary of terms is available here.
International agreements
International agreements are another major element of the acquis communautaire, which is a French term referring to the entire body of EU law. They are situated between primary law, the Treaties, and secondary legislation, meaning laws based on the Treaties. Ever since the Treaty of Rome, the EU has had the necessary powers to conclude international agreements with other states and international organisations in specific areas. In 1971, however, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) developed what can be called the doctrine of “implied powers” in the AETR case. This enabled the EU to conclude international agreements “over the whole field of objectives” defined by the Treaty. In brief, this meant that even where external powers had not been explicitly conferred, such powers are conferred implicitly whenever the EU’s goals cannot be reached through internal measures alone.
Ever since the Treaty of Rome, the EU has concluded thousands of international agreements. You can find them in the databases of the Council and EUR-Lex. If you need general background information on the EU’s relations with certain countries or world regions, you can also have a look at the summaries offered by the EEAS, the Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade, and the Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships. EU delegations also often provide useful information on the EU’s bilateral relations with the country in which they are located.
Audiovisual information
The EU’s news and media pages offer a wealth of information. The Commission’s Audiovisual Service is packed with videos, audio and photos. It also includes Europe by Satellite, where you can, for example, watch Commission press briefings or follow major EU events live.
The Council has its own live video service, where you can follow Council press conferences and other events. The European Parliament offers a similar resource through its Multimedia Centre. Together, these sites can give you a practical sense of how EU institutions work.
Press releases
Press releases can be very useful, especially if you need to reconstruct the positions or priorities of EU institutions. The Commission’s Press Corner is a useful starting point. Watch out for “memos”, “Q&As” and “FAQs”, as they often provide excellent summaries. The European Council and Council database contains press releases and statements, while the European Parliament’s press room can be found here. The Parliament’s Fact Sheets on the European Union are also a good place to start when you need concise background information.
While not, strictly speaking, press releases, let me add a few more sources here. The EU’s Publications Office offers publications that can often be freely downloaded. For example, the “General Report on the Activities of the European Union” is a summary of what the EU has done in a given year; an older example is available here. You can also check the Commission’s transparency pages, the Council meeting calendar, and European Council conclusions. To learn more about the European Parliament, this page on its organisation and rules is a good place to start.
Journalistic sources
Press releases can provide a lot of insight, but they usually do not tell you everything you may want to know, such as which country supported or opposed a proposal. For this, you will need to turn to reporters. Fortunately, the European media landscape is fairly well developed. One upside to the many crises the EU has gone through is that they have increased journalistic attention to European politics.
One excellent source is Politico Europe. The Guardian’s European Union section is in many regards comparable, although it naturally has a stronger focus on stories that carry particular importance for the UK, even after Brexit. Euractiv is another excellent source and often covers rather technical stories that can be important if you are a student of European integration. EUobserver is also useful, running fewer stories than some larger outlets but often with a good eye for institutional detail. The specific outlet you use does not matter too much. All of them are useful, and you will hopefully be quickly drawn into the fascinating dynamics behind European decision-making.
Finally, let me mention LexisNexis/Nexis, a database supporting full-text searches across various newspapers, such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, El País, Le Monde and the New York Times. Whenever you think your story may not only have shaken Brussels but also drawn ripples in national capitals and around the world, a database like Nexis can yield a wealth of additional information. Finding information on Nexis can be daunting simply because of the breadth of the database, but it is usually worth the effort. Students at the University of Salzburg can access it here.
Archival sources
If you are studying an event going back 30 years or more, you can also check archival sources. The Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance de l’Europe (CVCE) collects an impressive amount of primary documents on European integration since 1945. The Archive of European Integration (AEI), hosted by the University of Pittsburgh, does not have quite such a sophisticated visual interface. But do not judge a book by its cover: there is a great deal of information waiting to be uncovered, and those persistent enough to look for it are often rewarded with material that is impossible to find elsewhere.