There are a number of document types generated by the various institutions during the legislative process, in particular Parliamentary documents and Commission Documents (Com Docs). As the body responsible for researching policy and preparaing draft legislation for the Council and Parliament, the Commission plays a particularly important role in the legislative process. Therefore, Comdocs are often the best source of background information on the purpose of legislation, the intended means of implementation, as well as the problem it is designed to address.
There are several ways to locate preparatory documents. First, if you locate a Bibliographic Notice for an adopted provision in Eur-Lex, there will be links to Parlaimentary documents and citations to any Com Docs. (See section on Eur-Lex.)
Second, you can search the Legislative Observataory for Parliamentary Documents, or Pre-Lex. which is the Legislative Procedures tab in Eur-Lex, or the Procedure tab for a retrieved legislative text. (See section on Eur-Lex).
PreLex indexes and links to a broader range of prepatory documents than the Legislative Observatory. Whereas the Legislative Observatory focuses on Parliamentary documents, the PreLex database follows all official prepatory documents (Proposals, Recommendations, Communications) transmitted by the Commission to the legislator(s) (the Council - the Parliament) and to other institutions and bodies, such as the European Economic and Social Committee. PreLex contains the work of the various institutions involved in the decision-making process, including the European Parliament, Council of the European Union, European Commission, European Economic and Social Committee, Committee of the Regions.You can use PreLex to follow the progress of legislative and non-legislative proposals from the time they are adopted by the Commission and sent to the Council and Parliament up to the point where, in the case of legislative proposals, they are finally adopted.
The Legislative Observatory is similar to a bill-tracking service, designed to enable researchers to track legislative "procedures," i.e., the pathways followed by legislative proposals through the Parliament. The heart of the Legislative Observatory are procedure records, with links to documentation and summaries of main Parliamentary and other institutional documents.Procedure records are located via a search interface that permits retrieval by many data points, most importantly year and subject.
Shown below is a typical Legislative Observatory record. To see an annotated version, click on the image or select the link to the Legislative Observavtory below left.
Shown below is a typical Pre-Lex record. Click on it for an annotated version.
