Official Journal of the EU: electronic publication

PURPOSE: to simplify the publication of the Official Journal and to facilitate citizens' access to it.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Regulation.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act. 

BACKGROUND: the Official Journal of the European Union is published in electronic form pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 216/2013.

The authenticity, integrity and inalterability of the electronic edition of the Official Journal can be guaranteed by various organisational and technical means which offer comparative security guarantees. These means may change over time.

In order to avoid the need to amend the Regulation with each new method or technology or change of technical details, it is proposed to reformulate the wording of the Regulation in a more generic way.

CONTENT: the proposed amendment to Regulation (EU) No 216/2013 enables the authentication of the Official Journal by new technological means without the need for additional amendments. It reconciles the obligation to remove certain information from the Official Journal with the inalterability principle and establishes authenticity of electronic editions published subsequently to a disruption of the information systems.

In concrete terms, the proposal:

- specifies that the electronic edition of the Official Journal shall be published under technical conditions ensuring the authenticity of its content. The system put into place to ensure authenticity shall be documented on the EUR-Lex website and allow for the authenticity of the electronic edition of the Official Journal to be easily verified;

- provides that where certain information in the Official Journal must be removed after publication pursuant to a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union or for reasons of protection of personal data in accordance with Union legislation, a new version of the electronic edition of the Official Journal concerned shall be published, accompanied by a notice to that effect. The original version of the electronic edition of the Official Journal concerned shall be kept in the archives of the Publications Office for an unlimited period;

- provides that the electronic edition made available to the public on the EUR-Lex website subsequently to a disruption of the information systems becomes the authentic edition from the moment it is made available. Legal certainty then requires that from that moment, the earlier (printed or electronic) edition no longer has authentic status.