Monitoring of the application of Community law. 15th annual report 1997

This Commission working document deals with the CELEX system (interinstitutional system of automated documentation of Community law) and presents the annual management report for this database for 1997. To recap, CELEX (Communitatis europae lex) is the official legal database of the EU institutions, which covers: - Community legislation (including preparatory work and reference to national implementation measures); - case law of the Court of Justice; - parliamentary questions. CELEX is currently diffused by the server of the OPOCE (Office of Community publications) as well as by around 40 other servers and CD-ROM distributors in Europe and the United States. During 1997, the report indicates that significant work was carried out with a view to improving the system (a qualitative revision of CELEX, loading of the texts of resolutions and written questions of the European Parliament...) The report also notes a significant increase in direct use of CELEX. However, the modification of the pricing of this database has lead to a significant fall in income in 1997 and the objective of freedom of access to Community law in 1998 may further accentuate this trend. The report concludes that this fall in income will have an impact on the budget for CELEX and will require decisions to be taken at an appropriate level.�