WRITTEN QUESTION E-2800/99 by Ingo Friedrich (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Commercial publication of the European Official Journal.
Date: 2000-01-18
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Official Journal, access to EU information, free service

C 303 E/112

Official Journal of the European Communities

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24.10.2000

organisations (NGOs). In particular, it supports a number of projects assisting women and children who
are victims of trafficking. The Daphne programme is open for organisers from the candidate countries,
which will increase its effect in combating the scourge of trafficking.

In addition the Commission will also continue to participate in the work carried out against trafficking in
various international fora such as the United Nations (draft convention on transnational organised crime
and additional protocols, including one on trafficking), the group of eight most industrialised countries
(G8) and the Organisation for security and cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

(1) COM(96) 567 final and COM(98) 726 final.
(2) OJ L 63, 4.3.1997.
(3) OJ L 322, 12.12.1996.
(4) OJ L 34, 9.2.2000.

(2000/C 303 E/109)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2800/99

by Ingo Friedrich (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(18 January 2000)

Subject: Commercial publication of the European Official Journal

The Commission publishes the Official Journal of the European Union in electronic form in the EUR-Lex
archive. With this archive the Commission enables access to be gained to the Official Journal free of charge
as part of its commitment to closeness to the citizen and transparency. However, such access is free of
charge for only 45 days from the date of publication.

Can it be in the Commission(cid:146)s interests to publish legal documents of relevance to the public on a

1.
commercial server more than 45 days after the date of publication?

2.
The public cannot understand why a relatively high price is charged for European legislation and
communications. It costs EUR 8,40, for example, to obtain 28 pages on the commercial server EUDOR.
How can so large a financial contribution from the public be justified?

How does the Commission believe the Official Journal might be made available free of charge or at a

3.
lower price by electronic means for a longer period?

Answer given by Ms Reding on behalf of the Commission

(24 March 2000)

In his question, the Honourable Member refers to the Official Journal of the European Communities (OJ) as
if it were published by the Commission alone. The Commission would point out that decisions relating to
the procedures for publishing the OJ are taken by the Management Committee of the Office for Official
the
Publications of
European Parliament, Council, Commission, Court of Justice, Court of Auditors, Economic and Social
Committee and Committee of the Regions. The Management Committee unanimously sets the general
policy guidelines for the sale and free dissemination of publications by the European institutions, including
the electronic version of the Official Journal to which the Honourable Member refers.

the European Communities (EUR-OP), which is composed of representatives of

The commercial factors which the institutions take into account when making the OJ available to the
public are primarily based on the following considerations:

(a) Legislative texts imposing a legal obligation are made available to the public free of charge. The end-

user pays only for the medium on which they are distributed (Internet, CD-ROM, paper).

(b) Products and services which add value to the basic documents usually have to be paid for. The value
added of a given product or service can take different forms, such as the compilation of sophisticated
databases and provision of detailed and powerful search functions and subject indexes. The value

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 303 E/113

added can also be provided by intermediaries working on behalf of the Publications Office, such as
staff in the document delivery service who locate and supply the documents.

1.
All the legislation in force may be accessed free of charge and at any time by any member of the
public in the (cid:145)Legislation(cid:146) section of EUR-Lex. However, a charge is made for access to archives containing
the texts of older Official Journals in TIFF format (over 10 million pages) after they have been made
available free for 45 days. The income generated by these archives ensures that the document-delivery
network is kept easily accessible to the public (cid:129) even to those people who do not have Internet access (cid:129)
and contributes to financing the costs of producing, managing and maintaining the archives themselves.

See point 1. The prices for accessing these databases are entirely comparable to those applicable in

2.
similar systems in the Member States.

Since 1998, members of the public have been able to obtain all the language versions of the L and
3.
C editions of the Official Journal (the C edition has been available since 31 August 1999) for a given year
(some 500 000 pages) on CD-ROM at a price of EUR 144. The L and C editions of the Official Journal are
made available in EUR-Lex for 45 days after publication in order to cover the time required for distributing
the monthly CD-ROM.

Each year, the EUR-OP Management Committee reviews the pricing policy for all the publication formats
of the Official Journal.

(2000/C 303 E/110)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2803/99

by Jorge HernÆndez Mollar (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Mediterranean internal market

(18 January 2000)

The southern Mediterranean countries have asked the European Union to become politically involved in
the Mediterranean and in issues of peace and stability in the region. Europe has played a defining role in
the geography and history of many countries. It shares responsibility for their stability.

It is vital to launch a joint process of reflection on both sides of the Mediterranean and to think about the
future. An investment culture needs to be created in the region. Partnership between European technology
and the investment opportunities in the southern Mediterranean countries needs to be stabilised. Accord-
ing to government sources in the countries concerned,
it is hoped that, under its new President, the
Commission will be very Mediterranean in its approach.

Can the Commission say whether it has responded to the appeals by the governments of some of the
southern Mediterranean countries with the mutual enthusiasm and hope which might be expected from
the European Union(cid:146)s new initiatives in its long and short-term relations with Mediterranean countries
aspiring towards a Mediterranean internal market with the EU?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(21 February 2000)

One of the priorities of the MEDA programme is to assist in the establishment of a Community-
Mediterranean free trade area.

Within this overall context, the Commission has recently launched several major initiatives to underline
the importance it attaches to economic relations with the Mediterranean partners and to the establishment
of a free trade area.

In the field of investment the Commission decided in December 1999 to finance under MEDA a regional
programme for establishing a network between European and Mediterranean investment promotion
agencies. The objective of this programme is to increase foreign direct investment in the Mediterranean
region through enhanced cooperation among the institutions in charge of investment promotion. Activities