Akoma Ntoso for EU (AKN4EU) version 3.0 has been published

AKN4EU is a technical markup standard developed by the EU Institutions and based on Akoma Ntoso (AKN), which is deriving from the XML (Extensible Markup Language) standard for representing legislative, judicial and executive documents in a structured manner.

AKN4EU is tailored to the specific needs of the EU institutions, but Member States can adopt and/or re-use it for transposing and notifying EU legislation at a national level. Additional information on the standard AKN4EU are provided on the EU Vocabularies website.

AKN4EU is still a work in progress because it does not cover all document types. However, the first exchanges using AKN4EU will take place later this year. The Interinstitutional Metadata and Formats Committee (IMFC), which is chaired and managed by the Publications Office, has adopted version 3.0 of AKN4EU on 17 April 2020.

The Publications Office has subsequently updated the EU Vocabularies website accordingly and published AKN4EU version 3.0 on 27 April 2020.

The package comprises the following components:

• The revised documentation, split in two volumes:
  • Volume I “General principles” : 
    • Use cases (primarily documents pertaining to OLP)
    • Design principles (synoptism, annexes, references, Authority Tables, IMMC etc.)
    • Physical specifications (character encoding, file naming convention etc.)
    • Business and technical validation rules (draft)
  • Volume II “XML mark-up”:
    • Part 1 “AKN4EU guidelines” (document structure, metadata, inline elements, amending acts, annexes, ELI syntax (draft specification for subdivisions, draft identifier for preparatory documents) etc.)
    • Part 2 “Correspondence between CoV and AKN4EU” (mapping CoV term/AKN element)
    • Part 3 “AKN4EU specifications” (AKN elements and attributes used in AKN4EU documents, specific descriptions and rules)
• Reference Library of 25 XML examples documents (instances marked-up in AKN4EU 2.1 upgraded to v. 3.0, and new instances added for AKN4EU 3.0):
  • Regulation (now including amending acts)
  • Directive (now including amending acts)
  • Decision
  • Proposal for a regulation
  • Proposal for a directive
  • Proposal for a decision
  • EP text adopted (only legislative resolution part)
  • Annex (new): simple examples, tables and images
  • International Agreement (new).
• Example IMMC packages:
  • Directive
  • Proposal for a regulation

If you have questions or further need for information, please contact: OP-EU-VOCABULARIES@publications.europa.eu.