European Union Law

The text of all Council of Europe treaties, their explanatory reports, the status of signatures and ratifications, the declarations and reservations made by States, as well as the notifications issued by the Treaty Office since 2000, are available on this website. Texts of declarations and reservations as well as electronic notifications are available in the Council of Europe's official languages only.

The Eur-Lex International Agreements collection covers all the instruments produced by the EU in the exercise of its international responsibilities. The database can be browsed or searched.
This collection includes:

- Agreements concluded by the European Union with non-member countries or with international organisations in their specific areas of responsibility.
- Agreements concluded jointly by the Member States and the European Union in areas of shared responsibility (‘mixed type’ agreements).
- Decisions of joint committees set up pursuant to an international agreement and comprising representatives of the signatories for the purpose of administering the agreement.

All EU treaties are available in this collection (open access).

The main source of EUR-Lex content. It is published every day from Tuesday to Saturday. There are 2 series:
- L (legislation)
- C (information and notices)

The Eur-Lex Treaties collection can be browsed or searched, and there is a Chronological Overview.

See this page for a list of the main EU Treaties and links to the full text.

These provide the legal basis for the European Union, and are frequently referred to as 'primary legislation'

Abstract: This chapter examines narratives of constitutionalism and the ebb and flow of constitutional ideas and practices within and across the European Union and its Member States from the inception of the treaties to the present day. It seeks to establish to what extent the European Union manifests a ‘constitutional’ legal and political order. It focuses on the contribution of legal rules to developing constitutional structures, as well as the role of ideas in relation to legal rules. The original objectives of the so-called ‘founding fathers’ of European integration concerned the promotion of peace, prosperity and a form of non-nationalist supranationalism. In many respects, the EU has been remarkably successful, given the history of the European continent right through to the middle of the twentieth century. The ‘constitutionalised treaties’ have been at the heart of that success. But now we must pay attention to recent challenges, resulting from the financial crisis, the travails of the Eurozone, problems in the EU’s near abroad, and the arrival of large numbers of refugees at and beyond the external borders of the EU. In an era of national reactions against neo-liberalism and globalisation, the role of the EU and specifically of the Court of Justice of the EU is increasingly under question.