European Commission: Legal service, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

This book celebrates 70 years of EU law. It is written by lawyers whose daily work in the Commission Legal Service ensures that EU law is correctly applied and properly implemented within the Union. EU law is the guiding thread of European integration. All major steps forward in the process of integration are reflected in acts of EU law. EU law characterises the past 70 years of the EU, from the ECSC to the EU of today. In those 70 years, the EU has transformed from an economic union to a union for its citizens.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Communication and Borchardt, K., Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

The legal order created by the European Union shapes our political life and society. Individuals are not merely citizens of their country, town or district; they are also EU citizens. The ABC of EU Law by Prof. Klaus-Dieter Borchardt examines the roots of the European project and its development as a legal order, and is a definitive reference work on the subject. It is intended for interested readers who would like an initial insight into the structure of the European Union and the supporting pillars of the European legal order.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Digital Services, AI-based solutions for legislative drafting in the EU – Summary report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This publication provides an overview of the results of a European Union (EU) funded study entitled “Overview of smart functionalities in drafting legislation in LEOS”. The full study has been published on the European Commission's (EC) Joinup platform and centres on the concept of smart functionalities in law-making, i.e., advanced Information (and Communication) Technologies (I[C]T) services that assist legal drafters and policy developers in their daily work. The underlying research was conducted in view of the development of an “augmented LEOS”, an open-source solution developed by the EC for drafting legislation

Court of Justice of the European Union, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The Court of Justice of the European Union is one of seven European institutions. It is the judicial institution of the European Union and its task is to ensure compliance with EU law by overseeing the uniform interpretation and application of the Treaties and ensuring the lawfulness of measures adopted by the EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies. The Institution helps to preserve the values of the European Union and, through its case-law, works towards the building of Europe. The Court of Justice of the European Union comprises two courts: the Court of Justice and the General Court.

European Committee of the Regions: Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs, Holzhausen, A., Gauci, J., Garciandia, R. and McGuinn, J., European Committee of the Regions, 2024.

To ensure evidence-based, transparent, and accessible European Union (EU) law-making which adequately accounts for views of citizens, businesses, and stakeholders in the decision-making process, the European Commission (EC), which is the EU institution responsible for initiating and implementing the EU’s policies, has embarked on the EU Better Regulation Agenda. Calls for a strategy to improve the quality of policies produced by the EU date back to the early 1990s, with ‘high quality regulation’ and ‘better regulation’ initially emerging in waves in the EU2 The strategy has subsequently taken a gradual role in the EU policy process, mostly at the stage of policy formulation, in the early 2000s, and has been extended to other stages of the policy process in the last decade. Nowadays, Better Regulation covers the whole EU policy cycle – from planning, to design, adoption, implementation, evaluation, and revision of EU policies – and is governed by key concepts and principles developed by the EC.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Böök, B., Burri, S. et al., Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This report provides a general overview of the ways in which EU gender equality law has been implemented in the domestic laws of the 27 Member States of the European Union, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (the EEA countries), and the United Kingdom. The analysis thus covers 31 countries in total. The analysis is based on the country reports written by the gender equality law experts of the European Equality Law Network (EELN). This report also explains the most important elements of the EU gender equality acquis. The term ‘EU gender equality acquis’ refers to all the relevant EU Treaty and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights provisions, legislation and case law of the CJEU in relation to gender equality.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Chopin, I. and Germaine, C., Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This comparative analysis, drafted by Isabelle Chopin and Catharina Germaine (Migration Policy Group), compares and analyses the information set out in the country reports relating to 2022 for the 27 EU Member States in a format mirroring that of the country reports themselves and draws some conclusions from the information contained in them. The report further presents the general trends in European anti-discrimination policy and points out some of the remaining dilemmas in the application of antidiscrimination legislation. It gives an overview of the main substantive issues in both directives: the grounds of discrimination, the definition of grounds and scope, exceptions to the principle of equal treatment and positive action, access to justice and effective enforcement, and equality bodies.

Court of Justice of the European Union, The Court of Justice of the European Union – Ensuring the protection of EU law, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The Court of Justice of the European Union, the judicial authority of the European Union, ensures that EU law is interpreted and applied correctly.

Marco Almada, European University Institute, 2024.

The growing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is a pressing matter for regulation in the European Union (EU) and beyond. Faced with the growing adoption of AI technologies in society, legislators often try to address AI-related issues through so-called technology-neutral regulation, that is, through regulatory instruments that apply equally to different technologies. The general meaning of technology neutrality is clear at first glance, yet scholars and policymakers in various domains have interpreted and developed the concept in different—and sometimes incompatible— ways. As a result, there is considerable divergence about what technology neutrality requires and what it adds to AI regulation. I address that divergence by proposing a new account of technology-neutral regulation.

European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, The effect of Court of Justice of the European Union case-law on national data retention regimes and judicial cooperation in the EU – Criminal justice across borders, European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, 2024.

At the beginning of 2017, the College of Eurojust initiated a project designed to assess the impact on judicial cooperation in criminal matters within the European Union (EU) of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Joined Cases C-203/15 and C-698/15, Tele2 Sverige and Watson. The project aimed to get an overview of the legal frameworks in the Member States relating to the retention of traffic and location data, along with the access to such retained data by law enforcement and judicial authorities. It also included practitioners’ views on the impact of the CJEU judgment on cross-border investigations and prosecutions.

Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The present guide was created by the ELI Taskforce and is aimed at developers or project managers who want to implement ELI into their legal publishing systems. The ELI Taskforce was set up in December 2012, under the auspices of the Council of the European Union Working Party on E-law, to study the future development of the ELI standard. The taskforce aims to help Member States wishing to adopt ELI by sharing knowledge and expertise.

European Parliament: Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union and Morijn, J., Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of how EU law in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) is currently enforced. It discusses traditional enforcement tools like infringement actions, budgetary conditionalities and other policy-based monitoring and evaluation methods. Based on this it formulates policy recommendations to further improve AFSJ-enforcement in a comprehensive manner.

European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, Eurojust single programming document 2025-2027 – 5 November 2024, European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, 2024.

Eurojust will support the setting and implementation of the EU political and strategic priorities in the area of criminal justice cooperation, as per the agenda set by the new European Commission and Parliament as well as an ever-growing set of judicial practitioner networks. The agency will actively contribute to the main EU strategic initiatives in the JHA area1 and the activities of EMPACT, COPEN, COSI and CATS, representing the judicial cooperation element of the EU policy cycle 2022-2025 while feeding into the preparation of the next policy cycle starting in 2026.

European Union Institute for Security Studies, Schmitt, M. and Vihul, L., European approaches to the application of international law in cyberspace – A comparative legal analysis, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This study examines the positions of European Union Member States (as of April 2024) on how international law applies in cyberspace. Of the 27 Member States, 13 have issued official national positions on the matter. The study is designed to identify commonalities and divergencies among them. The national positions bear on international law found in customary international law and treaties such as the UN Charter. Treaties bind only the parties to the instrument concerned, whereas customary law sets forth legal obligations for all States.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

In the report, you will find detailed information on judicial training on EU law, including on the training of young justice professionals, the variety of training activities offered by training providers and the quality of training relating to Member States as well as to the Western Balkan countries.

Council of the European Union, General Secretariat of the Council, Publications Office, 2019.

This publication contains a selection of 106 texts that are relevant in the field of European criminal law. It includes instruments adopted by the EU Institutions concerning cooperation in criminal matters (including on mutual recognition of judicial decisions), instruments concerning substantive criminal law, extracts from the Treaties, and agreements between the EU and third countries, such as relating to mutual legal assistance. The publication contains an index and bookmarks.

European Commission: Secretariat-General, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

Against the backdrop of the post-pandemic recovery and Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine, the von der Leyen Commission has put forward bold initiatives to drive and accelerate the green and digital twin transitions and to strengthen the resilience of our economies and democracies. They aim to make our industries more competitive, to defend our democratic values and stand stronger geopolitically.

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2024 reviews major developments in the field in 2023. Given the backdrop of threats to fundamental rights and freedoms in Europe today, FRA’s annual report is a timely review of the most pressing issues. It also presents FRA’s opinions on these developments, including a synopsis of the evidence supporting these opinions. The introductory lead chapter provides a broad view of fundamental rights concerns in 2023. Rising racism is a worrying trend, alongside an increase in incidents of hate against Jews and Muslims. Increasing digitalisation of our societies appears unstoppable and yet has ramifications for fundamental rights protections.

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, GDPR in practice – Experiences of data protection authorities, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

In 2024, the general data protection regulation (GDPR) is in its sixth year of implementation. This regulation, adopted in 2016 as a key part of the EU’s data protection reform, amended the legal framework that had been in place since the 1995 data protection directive entered into force. It has enhanced data subjects’ rights, redefined the scope and application of the fundamental right of data protection and harmonised further national legal frameworks across the European Union. It has strengthened the mandate, tasks and powers of supervisory authorities. Supervisory authorities are referred to in this report as ‘data protection authorities’ (DPAs), as key enforcers of the fundamental right of protection of personal data.

European Parliament: Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, Rzepecka, J., Fuksiewicz, A., Squillante, F., Alijošius, L. et al., Publications Office of the European Union, 2024

EU legislation calls SMEs to contribute to the twin transition. This study analyses the cumulative costs of selected pieces of EU digital and green legislation on SMEs and explores the effectiveness of costs mitigation tools at their disposal. This document was prepared for the Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies at the request of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO).

European Union Agency for Asylum, Jurisprudence on material reception conditions in asylum – Sanctions, reductions and withdrawals, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The cases presented in this report are based on the EUAA Case Law Database, which contains summaries of decisions and judgments related to international protection pronounced by national courts of EU+ countries, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

European Parliament: Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union and Maciejewski, M., European Parliament, 2024.

Exponential progress in the area of ICT improves access to data and information, which in its turn can lead to greater accessibility, reduced complexity, efficiency and respect of fundamental rights in policy, law making and implementation of law. Drafting and publication of laws need to be reformed from paper based format to modern digital media. Expertise, evidence and data should constitute mandatory elements of policy and law making. Ex-post quantified evaluation of legislation needs to be applied consistently. This study was prepared by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the JURI Committee.

European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, Multi-annual strategy – 2025-2027, European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, 2024.

Eurojust is the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation. We bring together prosecutors and judges from across the European Union (EU) and beyond, in an effort to effectively tackle all forms of serious cross-border crime. Through our expertise and support, we make sure that criminals are held responsible for their actions and justice is done. Eurojust is strongly committed to pursuing its mission, convinced that the proper and timely implementation of judicial cooperation procedures and the coordination of cross-border investigations are indispensable tools in applying the principle of the rule of law and in protecting the victims of crime.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment and Fogleman, V., Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The aim of this paper is to map out and analyse the way in which EU environmental law applies – and the degree to which it applies – the polluter pays principle (PPP) in article 191(2) Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU) through liability for environmental damage including liability for preventing and remediating pollution/contamination and other environmental damage, penalties for environmental damage offences, and civil liability claims for environmental damage. The paper also maps out and analyses EU legislation that forms the basis for water and biodiversity damage under the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) and EU legislation that designates areas in which Member States should carry out remediation and/or restoration measures. Although the EU version of the PPP for liability for environmental damage does not apply directly to much of that legislation, Member State versions of the PPP may apply to national legislation that imposes liability for such remediation and/or restoration.

European Parliament: Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union and Ziller, J., European Parliament, 2022.

This study, commissioned by the Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament, explains the principle of primacy of European Union law and its practical consequences, as established by the Treaty system and developed by Court of Justice case-law since 1964. It explains how and subject to which limits Member State courts accept, interpret and apply the principle.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Communication and Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The survey looks into several key aspects key as covered in the Rule of Law Report Key topics are: The support for EU values and the rule of law including the perceived importance of the EU's fundamental values, the perceived role of the EU in upholding the rule of law and the perceived level of information about the EU's fundamental values and the rule of law. The general perception of the justice system on a national level and the improvements of national justice systems over the past five years. The perception of the anti-corruption framework within the respondents' country and the improvements made with regard to the situation of corruption and anti-corruption measures. The media freedom and pluralism within the Member States and the improvements made regarding media freedom and pluralism. The situation of checks and balances on a national level. Again, the survey gathers the perceived improvements made in this regard.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment and Fogleman, V., Study in support of the evaluation of the Environmental Liability Directive and its implementation – Final report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This report presents the findings of a study to support the European Commission’s evaluation of the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD, 2004/35/CE). The study involved a detailed review of available literature and datasets from across the EU. The study also gathered and analysed evidence and views from Member States, operators, representatives of the re/insurance industry, NGOs and other stakeholders on the functioning of the ELD, through case studies, Member States reports, an open public consultation, targeted stakeholder surveys, extensive email exchanges, interviews, and a workshop.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Guy, I., Beard, G., Smith, L., Jenkins, D. et al., Study on the need for harmonised rules to support the rise of micro mobility and increased road safety for personal mobility devices – Final report (1.0), Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

Despite the proliferation of new types of personal mobility devices (PMDs) coming to the market in recent years there is no harmonised European regulations to govern their technical characteristics beyond the general requirements contained in the Machinery Regulation. The aim of this project was to investigate whether the creation of a harmonised European PMD regulation would be feasible and desirable.