3.1. References to the Official Journal
References to the Official Journal can be made in three different ways: long form, short form or abbreviated form. With the introduction of act-by-act publication, references to documents in the L and the C series include the European Legislation Identifier (ELI).
Reference to the Official Journal can be made in three different ways:
Long form
The long form is: Official Journal of the European Union (in italics)
It is used:
in the text:
Two members of the Board of Appeal and two alternates shall be appointed by the Management Board of the Authority from a short-list proposed by the Commission, following a public call for expressions of interest published in the Official Journal of the European Union, and after consultation of the Board of Supervisors.
in the formula for the entry into force of an act:
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
in corrigenda, under the title, as a reference to the original Official Journal concerned:
for documents published between 1 February 2003 and 30 September 2023:
(Official Journal of the European Union L 107 of 25 April 2015)
(Official Journal of the European Union C 275 of 4 August 2023)
for documents published from 1 October 2023:
(Official Journal of the European Union L, 2023/2122, 18 October 2023)
(Official Journal of the European Union C, C/2023/100, 6 October 2023)
For publications up to and including 31 January 2003, reference should be made to the Official Journal of the European Communities.
In a corrigendum to an act published in the Special Edition of the Official Journal, the special edition reference is added below the reference to the initial publication:
(Official Journal of the European Communities L 149 of 1 July 1972)
(English special edition, Series I, Volume 1972 (II), p. 606)
Short form
The short form is: Official Journal (not italics)
It is used:
in footnotes as follows:
(1)Not yet published in the Official Journal.in less formal texts.
Abbreviated form
The abbreviated form is: OJ L, OJ C, OJ S.
The L … I, C … A, C … I series were discontinued as of 1 October 2023 and the C … E series was discontinued as of 1 April 2014.
The abbreviated form is used:
in footnotes consisting of the reference to the Official Journal:
(1)OJ L, 2023/2387, 2.10.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2023/2387/oj.(1)OJ C, C/2023/90, 2.10.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2023/90/oj.in tables:
OJ L, 2023/2387, 2.10.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2023/2387/oj
Official Journal references have changed over the course of time:
before 1 July 1967, pagination is continuous and is followed by the last two figures of the year:
OJ 106, 30.10.1962, p. 2553/62
from 1 July 1967, every Official Journal begins at page 1:
OJ 174, 31.7.1967, p. 1
on 1 January 1968, the L and C series are created:
OJ L 32, 6.2.1968, p. 6
OJ C 1, 12.1.1968, p. 1
on 1 January 1978, the S series is created:
OJ S 1, 7.1.1978, p. 1
on 1 January 1991, the C … A series is created (discontinued as of 1 October 2023):
OJ C 291 A, 8.11.1991, p. 1
on 31 August 1999, the C … E series is created (discontinued as of 1 April 2014):
OJ C 247 E, 31.8.1999, p. 28
on 1 January 2016, the L … I and C … I series are created (discontinued as of 1 October 2023):
OJ L 11 I, 16.1.2016, p. 1
OJ C 15 I, 16.1.2016, p. 1
on 1 October 2023, publication of the Official Journal act by act is introduced:
OJ L, 2023/2387, 2.10.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2023/2387/oj
OJ C, C/2023/90, 2.10.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2023/90/oj
For documents published in the L series before the introduction of act-by-act publication, adding the ELI to the existing OJ reference is recommended, provided the ELI is available:
OJ L 314, 6.12.2022, p. 26, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2371/oj
Before 1 October 2023, the ELI was not assigned to documents in the C series.
European Legislation Identifier
With the introduction of act-by-act publication of the Official Journal on 1 October 2023, the European Legislation Identifier (ELI) is assigned to each document published in the L and the C series.
The ELI is a system for making national and EU law available online in a standardised format, so that it can be accessed, exchanged and reused across borders (for detailed information, see EUR-Lex).
The ELI, when applied to Official Journal documents, contains a fixed part (http://data.europa.eu/eli/), variables according to the OJ series and the abbreviation ‘oj’:
L series:
http://data.europa.eu/eli/type of act/year/sequential number/oj
C series:
http://data.europa.eu/eli/OJ series/year/sequential number/oj
For corrigenda, the ELI contains the details of the original publication, the word ‘corrigendum’ and the publication date in the format yyyy-mm-dd, followed by the abbreviation ‘oj’:
L series:
C series:
This identifier constitutes a mandatory element of references to the L series of the Official Journal. For references to the C series, the use of the ELI is optional but recommended.
A language code should not be added at the end of the ELI as it is not part of the identifier. The standardised ELI format must be followed to ensure the operability of the ELI system: