ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) legislative process is long, and because the media pays little attention. EUR-Lex has a great site with easy-to-read and legally correct summaries of all EU legislation in a particular policy area. It is a good place to start when one wants to get an overview of what EU laws there are before reading the actual legal texts. An EU decision takes effect once it is published in the daily Official Journal, which is available in full text on EUR-Lex. The easiest way to get an idea of the stage EU legislation has reached is to refer to the databases EUR-Lex and the Legislative Observatory. EUR-Lex is the European Commission's database; the Legislative Observatory that of the European Parliament. On EUR-Lex one can search in all official EU languages, the Legislative Observatory is only in English and French. However, if one looking for an overview of a draft law that is adopted by the ordinary legislative procedure.
