

OJ OnlinePlus contains documents gathered on a daily basis from EUR-Lex and it contains the Celex database, the inter-institutional documentation system for Community law. In addition, it delivers information collected from the principal EU Institutions and Agencies. The EU law database primarily covers documents published in the Official Journal of the European Communities and by the Court of Justice; legislation, treaties, case law and preparatory documents. The current trend is to extend coverage to documents considered by the issuing institution to be public, regardless of their publication in the Official Journal. Documents are given an identification number - a Celex number.
In OJ OnlinePlus a Celex number can be used to retrieve individual records and is the basis for cross-referencing of documents in the database as well as for implementing hypertext links. Celex numbers are constructed as follows:
Sector number |
Year |
Document type |
Reference number |
1 character |
4 digits |
1 or 2 characters |
3 or 4 digits |
Sector number
The Celex database is split into sectors. Each of these represents a broad category of information such as Secondary legislation or Cases. The different sectors and type of information they contain are given below.Year
The year is now represented by four digits, e.g.1992.Note: OJ OnlinePlus offers the option of searching by Celex numbers with a two digit or a four digit year.
Document type
This is the code for the document type. For example sector 3 (Secondary legislation) contains Directives, Regulations, Decisions, etc. Each of these different types of record is represented by a one or two letter code, for example a Directive is represented by the letter L. The letter code for each record type is shown in the table below. [Note: the same codes are sometimes used in different sectors for different document types, e.g. the Treaty of Rome is document type E in Sector 1, but document type E in Sector 9 is a written question.]Reference number
This is identifying number for the document, i.e. the legislation number, COM number or Case number. Where the reference number contains less than 4 digits, zeros are added to form a four digit number, e.g. the reference number for Directive 89/392/EEC is 0392. The exception is treaty articles, where the reference number must be a 3 digit number e.g. article 87 of the Treaty of Rome is 087.Examples:
The following examples show Celex numbers for different types of record:
Article 86 of the 1957 EEC Treaty = 11957E086
Directive 79/112/EEC = 31979L0112
Regulation (EEC) No 3033/80 = 31980R3033
COM (92) 23 final = 51992PC0023
Judgment of case 290/90 = 61990CJ0290
Celex has a subject classification system called the Register which is als used in the Directory of Community Legislation in Force. The Celex database is divided into the following sectors:
Sector 1 |
Treaties |
Sector 2 |
International Agreements |
Sector 3 |
Legislation |
Sector 4 |
Complementary legislation |
Sector 5 |
Preparatory acts |
Sector 6 |
Case Law |
Sector 7 |
National implementing measures |
Sector 9 |
European Parliamentary Questions |
Sector C |
OJC Documents |
Sector E |
EFTA Documents |
» More information on Celex sectors
A search in the Celex number field will retrieve a document and all records related to that document. Simply type in the Celex number you require, or browse the index, and press <ENTER> or click on the go icon.
A Celex number can also be entered into the following fields:
Cross reference
This field contains the Celex numbers from the Legal base, Legal citations,
Modifies, Modified by and ECJ reference fields. A search for a Celex number
in this field will retrieve all records related to the Celex number searched
for.
e.g. a search for 379L0112 in the Cross reference field will retrieve all records related to Directive 79/112/EEC. These may be acts that Directive 79/112/EEC has modified, or acts that modify 79/112/EEC. You will also retrieve any legislation that has Directive 79/112/EEC as its legal base or cites it in its text.
Modifications
This field links all records that directly have an affect on each other.
Records that amend, add, replace, adopt etc. Simply enter the Celex number of
the legislation or preparatory act you are interested in.
Modified by
This field contains the Celex number of all legislation that has modified
a particular record. Enter the Celex number of the piece of legislation you
are interested in and you will retrieve all legislation that it has modified.
Modifies
This field contains the Celex number of all legislation that modifies
a particular record. Enter the Celex number of the piece of legislation you
are interested in and you will retrieve all the legislation that modifies it.
1 |
D |
Treaty of Amsterdam 1997 |
M |
Treaty
on the European Union, Maastricht 1992 |
|
E |
EEC
Treaty 1957 |
|
K |
ECSC Treaty 1951 |
|
A |
EURATOM Treaty 1957 |
|
U |
Single European Act 1986 |
|
G |
Groenland Treaty 1985 |
|
R |
Treaty amending certain financial provisions 1975 |
|
F |
Treaty amending certain budgetary provisions 1970 |
|
F |
Merger Treaty 1965 |
|
B |
Accession Treaty 1972 (United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, Norway) |
|
H |
Accession Treaty 1979 (Greece) |
|
I |
Accession Treaty 1985 (Spain, Portugal) |
|
N |
Accession Treaty 1994 (Austria, Sweden, Finland, Norway) |
2 |
A |
Agreements with non-member States or international organisations |
D |
Acts of bodies created by international agreements |
|
P |
Acts of parliamentary bodies created by international agreements |
|
X |
Other Acts |
3 |
E |
Common
Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) - common positions |
F |
Justice
and Home Affairs (JHA) - common positions |
|
R |
Regulations |
|
L |
Directives |
|
D |
Decisions
(Entscheidung) |
|
S |
ECSC Decisions of general interest |
|
M |
Non-opposition to a notified concentration |
|
J |
Non-opposition to a notified joint venture |
|
B |
Budget |
|
K |
Recommendations ECSC |
|
O |
Guidelines ECB |
|
H |
Recommendations |
|
A |
Avis |
|
G |
Resolutions |
|
C |
Declarations |
|
Q |
Institutional
arrangements |
|
X |
Other documents |
4 |
A |
Agreements between Member States |
D |
Decisions of the representatives of the governments of the Member States |
|
X |
Other acts |
5 |
G |
Council |
AG |
Council - common positions |
(and Member States) |
KG |
Council - assent ECSC |
||
IG |
Member States - Initiatives |
|||
XG |
Council - other acts |
|||
C |
Commission |
PC |
COM Documents - proposals for legislation |
|
DC |
COM Documents - other documents |
|||
SC |
SEC Documents |
|||
XC |
Commission - other acts |
|||
P |
European European Parliament |
AP |
EP - legislative resolution |
|
BP |
EP - budget |
|||
IP |
EP - other resolutions |
|||
XP |
EP - other acts |
|||
A |
Court of Auditors |
AA |
Court of Auditors - opinions |
|
TA |
Court of Auditors - reports |
|||
SA |
Court of Auditors - special reports |
|||
XA |
Court of Auditors - other acts |
|||
B |
European Central |
AB |
ECB - opinions |
|
Bank |
HB |
ECB - recommendations |
||
XB |
ECB - other acts |
|||
E |
Economic and Social |
AE |
ESC - opinions on consultation |
|
Committee |
IE |
ESC - other opinions |
||
XE |
ESC - other acts |
|||
R |
Committee of the |
AR |
CR - opinions on consultation |
|
Regions |
IR |
CR - other opinions |
||
XR |
CR - other acts |
|||
K |
ECSC Consultative |
AK |
ECSC Com. - opinions |
|
Committee |
XK |
ECSC Com. - other acts |
||
X |
Other organs |
XX |
Other acts |
6 |
Court of Justice | General Court | Civil Service Tribunal The numbering of case-law notices changed in August 2011. All existing and new notices are numbered using double codes presented in the table. In OJ OnlinePlus it is possible to search by both the old & the new numbering. |
7 |
L |
National Implementation Measures - implementation of directives |
9 |
E |
European European Parliament - Written Questions |
H |
European European Parliament - Questions at Questiontime |
|
O |
European European Parliament - Oral questions |
E |
A |
International Agreements |
C |
Acts of the EFTA Surveillance Authority |
|
G |
Acts of the EFTA Standing Committee |
|
J |
Decisions, Orders, Consultative opinions of the EFTA Court |
|
P |
Pending cases of the EFTA Court |
|
X |
EFTA - Other Acts |
C |
Other documents published in the Official Journal |