Library blog

Understanding how EU laws are made can be challenging, but following the process does not have to be. Discover how the newly launched EU Law Tracker helps you keep track of European Union laws as they are proposed, discussed and adopted.

Discover our selection of books recently added to the Council Library collection.

Discover our selection of books recently added to the Council Library collection.

While various initiative and avenues have been introduced to further democratise the EU’s institutional architecture, the question of how to bring European citizens even closer to Brussels and encourage their political engagement remains topical and pressing – and it is this question that James Organ and Alberto Alemanno set out to answer in their 2021 book, Citizen Participation in Democratic Europe: What Next for the EU?

The Council's Archives collect and preserve Council documents and information in order to make them accessible to citizens, but archiving is not only about that. As 9 June is International Archives Day, it is a good opportunity to learn more about this profession and find out how Archives work in order to preserve the memory of our institutions.

Do you want to know more about how you can follow Council activities and keep up-to-date with the latest developments in EU legislation and policy? The Council is committed to ensuring that all EU citizens have access to this information. In a spirit of transparency, the General Secretariat of the Council (GSC) has therefore prepared this handy publication to guide you through the many ways in which the Council informs citizens and civil society.

L'e-lobbying renouvelle le lobbying classique auprès des institutions publiques et des entreprises. En s'appuyant sur plusieurs cas concrets tels que le CETA, l'autrice décrit les mécanismes du lobbying et leur évolution dans un monde de plus en plus connecté.

The new acquisitions of this month focus on transparency at the Council, political entrepreneurship, recent German history, amongst other subjects.

The study, commissioned by the European Parliament, analyses the parliamentary nature of the Council of the European Union, as well as the European Council, as regards their structure, working methods, and transparency.

Transparency and access to information are among the Finnish Presidency priorities. The Council Library has compiled a list of reading suggestions on these topics.

The book, which contains practical examples of defence diplomacy in different countries, guides the reader through this complex definition, showing its relevance throughout history and the advantages and obstacles in implementing it in Portugal, according to a number of top politicians, diplomats, military officials and scholars. This essay also reflects on the future of defence diplomacy in Portugal.

Jaap Hoeksma makes use of this book to deconstruct established ideas concerning the European Union.

After being asked in class by one of his students what it meant to be a European, Giancarlo Vilella, reflected on the matter and in a journey through time up until the present, he tries to answer his student. His conclusions are summarized in the essay 'Being European'.

What is the best way to share information about the European Union's institutions and activities with a diverse, diffuse and often uninterested public? This question, regularly posed over the past few decades, has in recent years come to be asked with ever increasing desperation. Bernd Spanier's study, Europe, anyone? The 'communication deficit' of the European Union revisited, was published in 2012 and is based on a dissertation submitted in 2010, but many of the observations it makes are still highly relevant, perhaps even more so, in 2016.