EU Resources

Policies of the European Union

The European Union is active in a wide range of areas, therefore, the policies and related information (e.g. legislation) can be found on the individual Directorate General (DG) websites:

• Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) - Policy Overview 2014-2020

• Budget (BUDG)

• Climate Action (CLIMA)

• Communication (COMM)

• Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CNECT)

• Competition (COMP)

• Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN)

• Education and Training

• Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (EMPL)

• Energy (ENER)

• Environment (ENV)

• Eurostat - Quality, Research & Methodology, Statistical Confidentiality, Copyright

• Banking and Finance

• Health and Food Safety (SANTE) - Health, Food Safety, Animal, Plant

• Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO)

• Human Resources and Security (HR)

• Informatics (DIGIT)

• Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROWTH) - EU Single Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Finance

• International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO)

• Interpretation (SCIC) - Language policy

• Joint Research Centre (JRC)

• Justice and Consumers (JUST)

• Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MARE) - Integrated maritime policy, The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)

• Migration and Home Affairs (HOME)

• Mobility and Transport (MOVE)

• Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR)

• Regional and urban Policy (REGIO)

• Research and Innovation (RTD)

• Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI)

• Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD)

• Trade (TRADE)

• Translation (DGT)

European Union - Legislation

As the European Union evolved over time, so has the process for creating European legislation. For instance European Parliament has steadily become more embedded in the legislative process. In 1986, the Single European Act (1986) and the Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon Treaties successively extended Parliament's prerogatives.

The European Union implements legislation using two types of legislative procedures:

• Ordinary Legislative procedure - Both The Council of the EU and the European Parliament are legislators

• Special Legislative procedure - The Council is, in practice, the sole legislator. The European Parliament is required to give its consent to a legislative proposal or be consulted on it

There are three basic types of EU legislative binding instruments:

• A regulation, which is similar to a national law, with the difference that it is applicable in all EU countries

• Directives, which set out general rules to be transferred into national law, by each country as they deem appropriate

• A decision, which only deals with a particular issue and specifically mentioned persons or organisations

These laws (regulations, directives and decisions) take precedence over national law and are binding on national authorities. The EU also issues non-binding instruments, such as recommendations and opinions, as well as rules governing how EU institutions and programmes work, etc.

Key databases:

• Search for legislation (EUR-lex) - Database of EU law, including the Official Journal, treaties, case law and parliamentary questions. It has a guided tour with tutorials on how to use EUR-Lex.

• Court of Justice of the European Union - The Court of Justice interprets EU law to make sure it is applied in the same way in all EU countries. It also settles legal disputes between EU governments and EU institutions. Its database contains case-law, judgements and opinions.

• European Court of Human Rights (HUDOC) - The European Court of Human Rights is an international court, set up in 1959. It rules on individual or State applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

• Summaries of EU legislation - EU legislation by topic, from agriculture to immigration and transport

• National Law (N-Lex) - Description and links to each Member States national law databases

• European Parliament legislative observatory - database for monitoring the EU decision-making process

• EuroVoc - a multilingual, multidisciplinary thesaurus covering the activities of the EU, containing terms in 23 EU languages

Further information:

• Introduction to European Law

• EU Treaties in Chronological order

• Application of EU Law

• Council of the European Union

• Council of Europe

• European Ombudsman

• European Court of Auditors

• TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the online version of the 'Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union', dedicated to European public procurement. It also provides free access to business opportunities.

European Union - Statistics

The European Union offers a wealth of information both quantitative and qualitative. It works on the idea that data should be freely available for use and reuse and, therefore, has an Open Data policy. The data is provided through a number of sources:

Eurostat

Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union. It was established in 1953 for the European Coal and Steel Community and adopted its name in 1959. Its purpose is to provide the European Union with statistics at European level so comparisons between countries and regions can be made. Thereby rely on theEuropean Statistical System (ESS) to provide comparable statistics at EU level.

Eurostat offers various ways to assess the data (both at EU and country level):

• Statistics Explained - is an encyclopaedia of European statistics. All data handled by Eurostat has been analysed and summarised with graphs and explanations on the results

• Summarised data grouped EU Policy Indicators and EU themes

• Statistics A-Z - browse through subject areas alphabetically

• Browse/search datasets using the Navigation Tree - gives a greater breakdown of datasets offered

• Visualisation Tools - tools to help you generate your own charts, maps, plots and much more

• GISCO: Geographical Information and maps - manages, analyses and displays all forms of geographically referenced information

• EuroStat publications - includes: thematic statistics, indicators, guidelines, working papers, etc

Note: all EuroStat information is updated twice a day, at 11:00 and 23:00
Download formats: tsv (tab separated values) and sdmx format

Eurostat now provides mobile apps (Available for iPhone, iPad and Android):

• EU Economy - gives an instant overview of the European Economy

• Country Profiles - provides you with real-time updates of some 160 key statistical data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

• Eurostat Quiz - fun app to test your knowledge about the EU and its Member States

Opinion surveys

• Eurobarometer (EB) surveys - comprises of the public opinions from Member States and associated countries. The major topics covered by the surveys are: European citizenship: enlargement, social situation, health, culture, information technology, environment, the Euro, defence, etc. EB offers:

  • Eurobarometer interactive search system - allows for a search to be performed in 3 stages 1) select a predefined question or type a related keyword, 2) select country or countries; 3) define the time period. The data can be displayed as a graph, a pie chart, in an excel table or in columns. Survey results can also be displayed on a map of the EU. The colour coding facilitates quick and easy comparisons between countries.

  • Standard EB - The survey consists of approximately 1000 face-to-face interviews per country. Data has been collected since 1973. The survey reports are published twice yearly.

  • Special EB - These surveys are based on in-depth thematical studies carried out for various services of the European Commission or other EU Institutions and integrated in Standard Eurobarometer's polling waves.

  • Flash EB - these are ad hoc thematical telephone interviews conducted at the request of any service of the European Commission. These surveys are conducted when the Commission needs to obtain opinions of a particular target group quickly.

  • Qualitative Studies - based discussion groups comprising of selected social groups. The purpose of these studies to assess the reactions, motivations, and feeling on a given subject or concept.

• Scientific Committees - Opinions of independent Scientific Committees on Consumer Safety, health and environment risks emerging and newly identified health risk

Open Data Portal

Open Data Portal was created to provide ease of access to a growing range of data from the institutions and other bodies of the European Union (EU). EuroStat, European Banking Authority, European Institute for Gender Equality, DG for Competition, European Environment Agency are just a sample of publishers that provide data to the portal (full list of publishers). The datasets are mainly in .tmx (Translation Memory eXchange) format.

Further information:

• EU Budget in Figures

• European Environment Agency (EEA) - comprises of European environment data. Datasets can be downloaded, graphs and maps generated.

• EU legislation on statistics

• DIRECTIVE 2013/37/EU amendment of DIRECTIVE 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information

• Directorate Generals - most EU Departments and institutions have their own databases

• Overview of EU Statistics

• Data Protection Supervisor - The European Guardian of data protection

European Union Databases and Tools

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

The European Union provides a vast amount of information. To make this information easily accessible tools have been developed and some of this information has been consolidated in databases (see below sources identified listed by Directorate General (DG)):

Note, all information, policies, legislations relating to these topic areas can also be found on the related Directorate General (DG) websites

• Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI)

  • DOOR ("Database Of Origin & Registration") - includes product names for foodstuffs registered as Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and Traditional Specialties Guaranteed (TSG), as well as, names for which registration has been applied

  • E-BACCHUS - a database on geographical indications protected in the European Union for wines originating in Member States and third countries

  • E-SPIRIT DRINKS - a database on geographical indications protected in the European Union for spirit drinks originating in Member States and third countries as well as new applications for protection

  • European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) - provide examples of EAFRD-funded information, communication and publicity tools used at Member-State and EU levels to promote the Rural Development Programmes and improve their effectiveness

  • Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) - a European system of sample surveys conducted every year to collect accountancy data from farms, with the aim of monitoring the income and business activities of EU agricultural holdings. It is, also,  an instrument for evaluating the income of agricultural holdings and the impacts of the Common Agricultural Policy

  • European Database of Local Action Groups (LAGs) - provides useful information about the LAGs, including: contact details; description of their territory; development strategy; and cooperation

  • Rural Development Programmes (RDP) database - includes all projects under the Rural Development programmes

• Climate Action (CLIMA) / Environment (ENV)

  • European Environment Agency (EEA) - provides independent information, from 33 member countries (28 European Union Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey), on the environment. Provides both catalogue and search tools for obtaining datasets, graphs, maps, interactive maps & data viewers, and indicators.

  • European Climate Adaptation Platform (Climate-ADAPT) - provides a variety of tools and methods for, e.g. observations and impact of climate change impacts, assessing the vulnerability of adaption strategies, to find case-studies, geographical information, etc. The Climate-ADAPT database can be search to find publications and reports, information, maps, graphs and datasets, and indicators relevant to adaptation

• Competition (COMP)

  • Competition Cases (for all policy areas) addressing anti-competitive behaviour

• Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN)

  • AMECO online (Annual macro-economic database) - including economic related data from for EU-28, the euro area, EU Member States, candidate countries and other OECD countries (United States, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Mexico, Korea, Australia and New Zealand)

  • Business and Consumer Surveys (BCS) - including Time series data, metadata, questionnaires in national languages, and related documents

  • LABDEV database - provides data on key labour market and wage developments indicators for all EU Member States

  • MACMIC online database - Database of simulations/estimates of the macroeconomic impact of microeconomic reforms in the context of the Lisbon strategy.

  • MICREF - a tool to monitor and analyse the reform process. Its aim is to improve the surveillance of micro-economic reforms in the EU Member States in the context of the Lisbon agenda

  • Database on Stability and Convergence programmes (Excel file)

  • Tax and benefits indicators database - simulations/estimates the likely impacts of tax policies on economic growth and employment

  • Taxation Reforms database - provides an overview of the main tax reforms implemented in the EU Member States since 2010

• Education and Culture (EAC)

  • Culture & Creative Europe

    • European Expert Network on Culture (EENC) - includes a synthesis of research and reports on a wide range of areas connected to the cultural sector and its policy implications at national, regional and European levels. A search tool is also provided to search for experts in the field.

  • Education

    • European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO) - is the multilingual classification of European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations. The ESCO classification identifies and categorises skills, competences, qualifications and occupations relevant for the EU labour market and education and training. It systematically shows the relationships between the different concepts.

    • Open Education Europa - offer access to all existing European Open Educational Resources in different languages in order to be able to present them to learners, teachers and researchers. Its FIND section showcases MOOCs, courses, and Open Educational Resources by leading European institutions. Its IN-DEPTH section hosts eLearning papers, EU projects, news and articles.

    • Ploteus - Learning Opportunities and Qualifications in Europe

• Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (EMPL)

  • Volunteer Opportunities database (for youths) - includes transnational volunteering opportunities across Europe and beyond

  • European Volunteer Service (EVS) accredited organisations - lists the organisations accredited to run projects under European Voluntary Service

• Energy (ENER)

• Eurostat - Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union, which provides statistics at European level that enable comparisons between countries and regions.

• Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (FISMA)

• Health and Food Safety (SANTE)

  • Health

    • European Centre for Disease Prevention Control (ECDC) has numerous databases and tools for mapping and analysing infectuous diseases, e.g. EMMa - is a simple web-based GIS tool designed to help identify patterns in communicable disease surveillance data or during outbreaks investigations.

    • European Core Health Indicators (ECHI) - provides data on European health indicators. Health indicators are sets of data (tables, graphs, maps) on health status, determinants and care in EU member countries. They allow for monitoring and comparison, and serve as a basis for policymaking.

    • Health related climate change projects - Innovative projects promoting health development that have received EU funding from the health programme

    • Injury Data Base (IDB) is a data source that contains standardised cross-national information on the external causes of injuries treated in selected emergency departments (EDs) in the EU

    • Other health related data collection tools, e.g. surveys

  • Food Safety: Health

    • Nutrition and physical activity - gateway, produced by the European Commission, to a wide range of information and data on health-related issues and activities at both European, national and international level

  • Food Safety: Food

    • Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) - includes food and feed safety alerts ("original notifications" - representing a new case reported on a health risk detected in one or more consignments of a food or feed.)

    • EU Register of nutrition and health claims made on foods - includes health claims (any statement about a relationship between food and health) and nutrition claims (suggests or implies that a food has particular beneficial nutritional properties)

  • Food Safety: Plants

    • EU Pesticides database -includes individual search tools for Active Substances, Products, Search pesticide residues

    • Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) - the register can be searched for products containing GMOs and the products subject to EC decisions on withdrawal from the market

    • GMOMETHODS: EU Database of Reference Methods for GMO Analysis - An application for authorising a GM food or feed must include methods for its detection, identification and quantification. These methods are validated by the European Union Reference Laboratory for GM Food and Feed (EU-RL GMFF), which verifies that they are sensitive, specific, accurate and reliable

    • Plant variety database - database for all registered agricultural and vegetable plant varieties whose seed can be marketed throughout the European Union.

• Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO)

• Human Resources and Security (HR)

• Informatics (DIGIT)

• Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROWTH) - EU Single Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Finance

• International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO)

• Interpretation (SCIC) - Language policy

• Joint Research Centre (JRC)

• Justice and Consumers (JUST)

• Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MARE) - Integrated maritime policy, The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)

• Migration and Home Affairs (HOME)

• Mobility and Transport (MOVE)

• Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR)

• Regional and urban Policy (REGIO)

• Research and Innovation (RTD)

• Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI)

• Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD)

• Trade (TRADE)

• Translation (DGT)

European Union - Repositories and Reference Tools

The European Union continually strives to ensure information is readily accessible to EU citizens, such as developing repositories and explanation or terminologies:

EU Repositories:

• OpenAIRE - provides open-access to scientific peer-reviewed publications and European funded research output. Grant recipients from the following: H2020; FP7 with SC39; or ERC are required to publish in open access. OpenAIREs successor OpenAIREplus is aimed at linking the aggregated research publications to the accompanying research and project information, datasets and author information

• JRC Publications Repository - gives access to data about research publications produced by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). The JRC is the European Commission's in-house science service which employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy

• Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) - consists of documents of the Institutions of the European Union, papers of pioneers and visionaries, of political leaders, and of the numerous European voices from movements, associations and political groups. The HAEU is developing digital archives, which currently stores over 250, 000 items (including photographs), which is approximately 6% of the material held

• Open Repository Base on International Strategic Studies (ORBIS) - is currently being developed to aid in the EU’s forward planning. The purpose of the repository is to collect research studies that facilitate forward thinking. ORBIS is run by the European Political Strategy Centre, which acts as a think-tank for the Juncker Committee by providing strategic analysis and policy advice on matters related to the policy priorities. Currently, anyone can submit their work, by creating an account in ORBIS. Each person will need to be approved by the Commission and the submission will go through a stringent checking procedure and requires approval from the editorial team. ORBIS is available to the public, researchers and academic to further their research.

• Speech Repository - an e-learning tool developed by DG Interpretation to help improve the quality of conference interpreter training. The repository consists of a collection of real-life speeches, on varying subjects and with different styles from national institutions and international organisations. It also contains recordings of pedagogical material, i.e. speeches delivered by experienced EU interpreters and university trainers. The Speech Repository covers all 24 official EU languages, the languages of some of the candidate countries, plus Russian, Arabic and Chinese

EU Reference Tools:

• EuroVoc - a multilingual, multidisciplinary thesaurus covering the activities of the EU, the European Parliament in particular. It contains terms in 23 EU languages, plus Serbian. The aim of the thesaurus is to provide the information management and dissemination services with a coherent indexing tool for the effective management of their documentary resources and to enable users to carry out documentary searches using controlled vocabulary.

• IATE multilingual database – consists of EU-specific terminology and jargon, as well as terms from all sorts of areas, such as law, agriculture, information technology and many others. IATE has 8.4 million terms, including approximately 540 000 abbreviations and 130 000 phrases, and covers all 24 official EU languages.

• Glossary of terms - The European Commission provides a glossary of terms by topic.

Cyprus and the European Union

Historical overview

The Republic of Cyprus, a small island country situated in the Eastern Mediterranean sea, joined the European Union on 1st May 2004. Relationships between Cyprus and the European Union began in 1973 with the Associate Agreement between Cyprus and the European Economic Community (EEC). The purpose of this agreement was to consolidate and expand trade, and the economic relations between Cyprus and the European Community. On 3rd July 1990 Cyprus submitted an application to become a member of the EEC. The application was critically assessed and Cyprus was found to satisfy the criteria of membership and suitable in 1993. This was reaffirmed in 1995. The accession of Cyprus, also, required harmonisation between Cypriot and European law, known as Acquis screening. This process was designed to determine the areas where necessary changes in Cypriot law needed to be made in order to harmonise it with EU legislation. This screening process was concluded in 2000 and implementation of these changes began and were assessed on a regular basis. The first Regular Report to the European Commission was submitted November 1998. Regular Reports and preparation for membership:

• Regular report from the Commission on Cyprus' progress towards accession 1998. 
  COM (98) 0710 final, 17 December 1998.

• Regular report from the Commission on Cyprus' progress towards accession 1999.
  COM (99) 0502 final, 13 October 1999.

• Regular report from the Commission on Cyprus' progress towards accession 2000.
  COM (2000) 0702 final, 8 November 2000.

• Regular report from the Commission on Cyprus' progress towards accession 2001.
  SEC (2001) 1745 final, 13 November 2001.

• Regular report from the Commission on Cyprus' progress towards accession 2002. 
  SEC (2002) 1401 final, 9 October 2002.

• Comprehensive monitoring report on Cyprus' preparation for membership 2003. 
  SEC (2003) 1202 final (COM(2003) 675), 5 November 2003.

For an in-depth overview and details of further negotiations, go to: Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus - A Historical Overview

EU supporting Cypriot economic recovery

Cyprus adopted the Euro on 1st January 2008. Since then the Cypriot economy has been erratic. In 2009 the Cypriot economy went into recession, which was mainly due to the large drop in the shipping and tourism sectors. Economic growth between 2010 and 2012 was weak and insufficient to counteract the 2009 recession. Property values had declined and there was an increase in non-performing loans. This combination of economic downfalls lead to the Cypriot financial crisis in 2012. In an attempt to address this problem the EU provided a number of investments to help boost the economy:

• Cohesion policy and Cyprus (gives summarised details of projects)

  • European Social Fund (ESF) - The purpose of the ESF is to modernise the skills and qualifications of workers. Also, to help disadvantaged groups get the support and training they need for work. This link also provides information on budget, funding and who participates in ESF.

  • European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - the overall objective of the ERDF is to improve the competitiveness of the country's economy within conditions of sustainable development.

• EU wide stress testing in Cyprus - Stress testing is a risk management tool. It is a tool used by the European Banking Authority (EBA) to monitor and assess market developments as well as to identify trends, potential risks and vulnerabilities. Thereby, helping the EBA to ensure the orderly functioning and integrity of financial markets and the stability of the financial system in the EU.

Relevant Publications

• Economic Bulletin, Central Bank of Cyprus: Eurosystem - focuses primarily on developments in the Cyprus economy and the euro area

• The economic adjustment programme for Cyprus - Fourth review Spring 2014

• The economic adjustment programme for Cyprus - Third review Winter 2013

• The economic adjustment programme for Cyprus - Second review Autumn 2013

• The economic adjustment programme for Cyprus

• The EU budget in my country - Cyprus

• The European Economic and Social Committee during the Cyprus Presidency

• Study on children’s involvement in judicial proceedings - Contextual overview for the criminal justice phase: Cyprus

• ERAWATCH country reports 2012: Cyprus - The main objective of the ERAWATCH Annual Country Reports is to characterise and assess the performance of national research systems and related policies in a structured manner that is comparable across countries.

Further information:

• Accession of Cyprus to the European Union - description

• Accession Partnership with Cyprus 2002 - COM/2001/652/FINAL, BULLETIN/2001/11/1.5.4

• The Treaty of Accession 2003

• The introduction of the euro in Cyprus and Malta. COM(2008)204 final

• Central Bank of Cyprus - Eurosystem

• European Banking Authority (EBA) recapitalisation exercise - Licensing and Supervision

• The Cyprus Economy - Historical Review, Prospects, Challenges

• Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union

• European contacts in Cyprus

Other Relevant Sources

The following are external information relating to Europe:

• Archive of European Integration is an electronic repository and archive for research materials on the topic of European integration and unification. You will need to register (at no cost) to access some resources

• Centre for European Studies is the Internet knowledge base whose educational approach provides students, teachers, researchers and anyone else interested in European issues with information on the history of European integration - multimedia and multilingual

• EurActiv is a free portal giving EU news, policy positions and "EU actors"

• European Integration History Index provides internet resources on the History of Europe after WWII in all languages

• Europeana is a digital library containing 4 million items, including images, texts, audio and video, from European museums, galleries, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections

Other Related Documents

• The EU and the US: differences in ideologies of political economy and economic structures, 4/2014, December 2014, Policy Paper for the Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs (CCEIA) [Contact CCEIA for copy of paper]

• Consumption Culture in Europe: Insight into the Beverage Industry - IGI Global Publication [English]

• Cyprus and the EU: Appraisal and Challenges [Greek; English; French]

• EP pilot project: Support for Farmers' Cooperatives, Final report - November 2012 [English]

• Farmer's Cooperatives Cyprus Report [English]