EU Bookshop a Single Access Point to EU Publications

PRESS European Economic and Social Committee

PRESS RELEASE No 41/2005 6 April 2005

EU BOOKSHOP – A SINGLE ACCESS POINT TO EU PUBLICATIONS

The EU bookshop portal will be presented to the Brussels press today, 6 April 2005 at 16.00h by Mr Venturini, Secretary general of the EESC and President of the Director’s Committee of the European Publications Office, Mr Cranfield, Director general of OPOCE.

The press conference will be held in the Pressroom of the European Parliament. It will be preceded by an online presentation of the EU Bookshop to Ms Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Interinstitutional relations and the Communications strategy.

Note to the editors:

The Publications Office launches its new online service EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.eu.int) which aims to provide a single access point to citizens and businesses for various publications of the European institutions, agencies and other bodies.

Whereas the Official Journal is easily accessible thanks to the very successful online services EUR-Lex and TED managed by the Publications Office, searching for other EU publications often proved to be much more time consuming. Several thousand publications are published every year by the Publications Office. They include popular titles such as the Statistical Yearbook, the General Report on the Activities of the European Union and, this year, the European Constitution. Online access to these works has improved over the past few years, but they are scattered around various websites of their author institutions. Further to its mandate to publish and distribute European publications in any shape and form, the Publications Office has taken a giant leap in completing its online services with the creation of an entry point designed to make access to EU publications easier and more attractive than ever.

Easy and immediate access to the content

EU Bookshop provides immediate access to the content of the publications through a comprehensive bibliographic notice. Recent publications in PDF format may be downloaded free of charge. The user can also order a single printed copy of any free-of- charge publication directly from the Publications Office, provided it is in stock. As for priced publications, the client may download the PDF file and print it out locally or he/she may order a bound copy through one of the Office’s sales agents selected in EU Bookshop. Books are usually shipped within 48 hours of receipt of the order. Multilingual and personalised service

The Publications Office’s ambition is to make EU Bookshop THE entry point for anyone interested in European Union publications. Currently, the main navigation pages of the site are available in 19 languages1 providing a unique multilingual access point to nearly 4 000 publications.

EU Bookshop is a constantly evolving online catalogue and replaces the voluminous and quickly obsolete print catalogues of the past. The number of publications in the catalogue will increase as new ones are published and older ones are added to the archive. In due course, EU Bookshop will become a valuable and complete source of EU-related information.

The user can find publications by both simple and advanced search functions or by browsing by thematic area or by author. Furthermore, users can sign up to ‘My EU Bookshop’ and access personalised functions: search queries can be saved for regular use or the user can choose to be notified by e-mail about publications of interest.

EU Bookshop will thus provide for online ordering and downloading. The service will offer a catalogue and an archive all under the same user-friendly structure.

This comprehensive portal will contribute to the EU information services in terms of transparency and simplicity for the benefit of the public and private sectors as well as of citizens within or outside Europe. The Publications Office shall continuously update the site and improve its main functions in order better to serve the European Union’s public at large.

Further references: EU Bookshop: single access point to all EU publications http://bookshop.eu.int Publications Office website http://publications.eu.int

Other services provided by the Publications Office: EUR-Lex: portal for accessing EU law http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex TED: invitations to tender http://ted.publications.eu.int SIMAP: information for public procurement http://simap.eu.int IDEA: directory of the European institutions http://europa.eu.int/idea European Publishers Forum http://publications.eu.int/general/publishers_e n.html CORDIS: Community Research and Development Information http://www.cordis.lu Service

Contacts for further information: Hilde Van Loon - Publications Office / EU Bookshop, information, marketing and promotion

For more details, please contact :

1 Vasco de Oliveira or Christian Weger at the EESC Press Office. Rue Belliard 99, B-1040; Bruxelles Tel.: 02 546 9396/9586; Mobile: 0475 753 202 e-mail : [email protected] Website: http://www.esc.eu.int/press/index_en.asp

The European Economic and Social Committee represents the various economic and social components of organised civil society. It is an institutional consultative body established by the 1957 Treaty of Rome. Its consultative role enables its members, and hence the organisations they represent, to participate in the Community decision- making process. The Committee has 317 members. Its members are appointed by the Council. Currently all official languages except Maltese.