HELP :: Search
Search this Portal
This Portal can be searched in two ways - "Basic Search", which searches the main texts of each page within the Portal - and "Search the Newsroom", which includes news, publications, events and funding opportunities, and comes in basic and advanced options.
Basic Search
What is searched? The main texts within each Portal page (i.e, the navigation and Newsroom content will not be searched) for your search term(s).
Grammar?
- Use a comma for the OR operator and a space for the AND operator.
- You can also use Verity Query Language - get help.
Search the Newsroom
The Newsroom contains news, events, funding opportunities and a library (more on the Newsroom).
This section therefore provides help for using the Search the Newsroom and Advanced Newsroom Search forms:
What is Searched, and How? | How can I focus my Search? | What are the 'types'? | How does the date range work?
What is Searched, and How?
The newsroom items' Title, Summary and other text fields are searched for your search term as a single string
The Newsroom rarely contains the complete text of a Newsroom item (news, event, etc.) - instead, it usually only contains a few pieces of information, and links you to the full content, published elsewhere. All official Speeches and Press Releases, for example, are published in full on the Commission's RAPID service, while official EU documents are published on EUR-LEX and most publications are published on the EU Bookshop.
Newsroom items therefore contain a subset of the full content - Title, Summary and other miscellaneous text fields. It is this content which is searched for your search term, treated as a single string:
e.g., entering "Parliament or Internet" will search the Newsroom for items containing that entire three-word string, rather than for items containing "Parliament" OR "Internet".
Finally, the Newsroom is currently 'language blind' - see Towards a Multilingual Newsroom.
How can I focus my Search?
Basic Search allows you to specify:
- item types: only those item types you specify will be searched (see What are the 'types' listed?, below)
- item date(s): see How does the date range work?, below
- relevant Theme(s): only those items relevant to the selected 'top-level' themes will be searched (unless you also select Search all lower-level themes within the selected theme(s) - see next point)
- Search all lower-level themes within the selected theme(s): selecting this option makes the search inclusive - it will search the selected Theme(s) and their lower-level Themes. For example: if you select "Quality of Life", "Culture and Society" and this option, items relevant to the following themes will be searched:
If you select Advanced Search, however, you can select any of the 20+ Themes of any level, plus any relevant portal subsites. This search is not inclusive - it will only search the pages you specify, not their subThemes.
What are the 'types' listed in the forms?
There are six types of information in the Newsroom: news articles, interviews/articles, events, library items, speeches and funding opportunities.
Note that:
- Selecting "News Article" means you will searching all news items in the Newsroom - both official press releases on RAPID and other news articles published by the European Commission;
- Library items cover a variety of EU legislation and policy documents, reports, brochures and more relevant to the Information Society;
- The Speech section contains speeches by European Commissioners, Commission Officials and external parties on IS-related issues. Speeches by external parties do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.
- Funding opportunities cover current and closed calls for tenders (for services 'bought in' by the European Commission) and call for proposals (by EC programmes for funded Projects). Current Funding Opportunities includes open calls as well as prior information notices for unpublished calls.
- Articles/Interviews are articles written by Commissioner Reding, and therefore only appear on Commissioner Reding's Newsroom;
Note that only the title and introductory paragraphs of most items will be searched - see What is Searched?, above.
How does the date range work?
If you have specified 'From' and 'To' dates:
- News articles loaded into the Newsroom on or between those dates will be searched.
- Events taking place on or between those dates will be searched
- Library items describing publications which were published on or between those dates will be searched;
- Speeches presented on or between those dates will be searched.
- Funding opportunities which are open between those dates will be searched.