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How to access Commission documents

Information on where to find documents held by the European Commission and other institutions, including legislative information, official documents, and meeting minutes and agendas.

Public access to documents

To help citizens to obtain access to information and documents about the work of the European Commission and the EU, the European Commission and other EU institutions make a large number of documents available online.

Sources of documents available

European Commission

European Parliament

  • Parliament's register of documents - main register of Parliament documents, allowing you also to submit requests for access to Parliament documents
  • Legislative Observatory- European Parliament's database for monitoring the EU decision-making process
  • IPEX - platform for the mutual exchange of information between the national Parliaments and the European Parliament concerning issues related to the EU

Council of the EU/European Council

Interinstituional registers

  • EUR-Lex - offers access to EU law, case-law by the Court of Justice of the EU and other public EU documents as well as the authentic electronic Official Journal of the EU
  • EU Publications - publications from the EU institutions, agencies and bodies (formerly 'EU Bookshop')
  • Transparency Register - a database for organisations that seek to influence the formulation or implementation of policy and the decision-making processes of the EU institutions
  • Eurostat publications - Eurostat publications, containing articles and glossaries presenting statistics
  • DORIE – database containing a selection of documents or excerpts of documents relating to general institutional issues and to the various intergovernmental conferences that have made changes to the founding EU treaties

Open data

You might also find what you are looking for by consulting the open data portal.

Staff and recruitment documents

Access to EPSO recruitment files or to the personal files of Commission staff is regulated by specific access rights. Applicants wishing to obtain access to their own files in these areas are advised to contact EPSO or DG HR directly.

European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO)

Human Resources and Security

General information

If you're looking for general information about the European Commission, Europe Direct can help you find what you need quickly. 

You can reach Europe Direct by phone, using a toll-free number that works from any EU country: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11. The lines are open between 09:00 and 18:00. 

Email - (reply within 3 working days)

Make a document request

​If you are not able to find the document you are looking for, you can submit a request for access to European Commission documents on the link below.

Request a Commission document

Privacy statement

When can a request be refused?

The Commission has the right to refuse access to documents which, if disclosed, would harm one or several of the public or private interests listed in Regulation 1049/2001.

Please note that some Commission documents may be covered in whole, or in part, by the exceptions to public access defined in the regulation.

According to the Courts, a general presumption of non-disclosure applies for documents relating to

  • ongoing EU pilot procedures
  • ongoing infringement and audit cases
  • state aid cases
  • competition cases; documents sent by national competition authorities
  • merger cases
  • fraud (OLAF) investigations
  • court cases
  • bids submitted by other tenderers in a procurement procedure
  • grant proposals submitted by other candidates
  • written questions asked in staff selection procedures

Documents

 

30 MAY 2001
Regulation (EC) no. 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents
English
(267.62 KB - HTML)
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