Publication of EU acts in official gazettes

4.2.2014

Question for written answer E-001102-14
to the Commission
Rule 117
Zdravka Bušić (PPE)

In accordance with the EU acquis and with the accession treaty that Croatia signed when it joined the EU, directives adopted by an EU legislative procedure are transposed into national legislation by laws and implementing acts, and the corresponding documents are then published in the national official gazette, in Croatia’s case the Narodne novine.

Regulations, which are directly binding in their entirety on all Member States, are published not in national official gazettes, but in the Official Journal of the EU. They can also be accessed on certain websites, but many people whose lives they directly affect have to go to great lengths by themselves in order to get hold of the official texts. That is why I think that a lot more could be done on this point to reduce the democratic deficit and bring Europe closer to ordinary citizens.

Can the Commission therefore say how it might be able to use documents published at national level to supplement its own publications and thereby make these more accessible to European citizens, observing the spirit of the EU acquis?

OJ C 305, 09/09/2014