Preparatory legislative documents: 1999 to present

What you can find in the document register

Preparatory documents are produced when Council working groups discuss draft legislation. In this register you can find preparatory legislative documents published after 1 January 1999. If you are interested in preparatory documents published before 1999, go to the "archives" section of this website.

How to find preparatory documents in the register

All preparatory documents related to a specific proposal under discussion in the Council carry the same unique interinstitutional file code given by the European Commission.

If you have a document related to a draft legislative act that you are interested in, you can find the interinstitutional file code on the first page of the document in a box in the upper-left hand corner. When you type this code in the "Interinstitutional File" field, you will get a list of all documents in the register relating to that act.

If you do not have such a document, you can use the field "Words in Subject" to find the interinstitutional file code for the draft legislative act that you are interested in. Type in relevant keywords of the subject of the draft legislative act and a list of documents will be displayed. Click on the bold reference number of one of the ST documents to arrive at the document information sheet. The interinstitutional number is clearly visible on this sheet.

• Search in the register

Unique interinstitutional file code