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Series and subseries of the Official Journal

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Since January 1968 the Official Journal has been composed of two series:

  • L – Legislation
  • C – Information and notices (C stands for French 'communications').

Over the years some subseries were also created (see more details in the table below) but they were discontinued with the publication of the Official Journal act by act.

You can consult the structure of the Official Journal before it switched to act-by-act publication on 1 October 2023. For more information on the structure of the Official Journal, please consult the Interinstitutional Style Guide​ .

The table below gives details on the structure of the Official Journal.

Series L Content

L

(Legislation)

(e.g. OJ L 067 – before the publication of the Official Journal act by act)

 Contains EU legislation.
Subseries

LI

(Isolated)

(e.g. OJ L 011I – before the publication of the Official Journal act by act)

A subseries introduced to make the planning and numbering of Official Journals more flexible. First used on 16 January 2016 (L 011I).

Discontinued with the publication of the Official Journal act by act.

LM

(e.g. OJ L 118M – before the publication of the Official Journal act by act)

 So far, the M subseries has only been used to publish the backlog of Maltese-language acts. (After Malta joined the EU in 2004, not all the acts were published initially in Maltese.)
Series C Content

C

(Information and notices)

(e.g. OJ C 100 – before the publication of the Official Journal act by act)

 Other official documents from the EU institutions, bodies and agencies.
Subseries

CA

(Annex)

(e.g. OJ C 019A – before the publication of the Official Journal act by act)

Contains vacancy notices and calls for expressions of interest. Can be published in one, several or all official languages.

Discontinued with the publication of the Official Journal act by act.

CI

(Isolated)

(e.g. OJ C 015I – before the publication of the Official Journal act by act)

A subseries introduced to make the planning and numbering of Official Journals more flexible. First used on 16 January 2016 (C 015I).

Discontinued with the publication of the Official Journal act by act.

Historical series

  • Series A and P - for legislative acts published before 1967.
  • Subseries CE - for electronic documents published between 1999 and 2014.
Historical series A and P Content

A (1952-1958)

(e.g. OJ A 038)

 'A' stands for French 'antérieur' , i.e. before the European Communities were set up. It covers legislative acts dating from 1952 to April 1958.

P (1958 - 1967)

(e.g. OJ P 050)

 'P' stands for French 'postérieur', i.e. after the European Communities were set up. It covers legislative acts dating from May 1958 to 1967.
Subseries

CE

(Electronic)

(e.g. OJ C 296E)

For electronic versions only.

Published between 31 August 1999 and 31 March 2014, originally at the Commission's request, for COM documents. Later, the subseries was also used by:

  • the Council - to publish common positions
  • the European Parliament - for various document types (minutes of plenary sittings, adopted texts, written questions).

Most of the documents which would once have been published in this subseries are now part of the C series.

Special editions

Special editions Content

A Special edition is published when a country becomes a Member State of the European Union. It contains all the EU legislation in force (the ‘acquis’) on the date of joining, translated into the official language of the country in question. The process of translating and publishing acts for the special editions starts before the country joins and is usually completed shortly after it has joined.

Special editions comprise 20 chapters, following the Directory of legal acts in force. Each contains one or more volumes.

Once a country has joined the EU, the acts published in the special edition can also be found in EUR-Lex. You can browse the special editions.
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