In 1963, the European Community established an extended network for the dissemination of information to the public. The European Documentation Centres are part of this network, situated in the member states of the EU, as well as in other parts of the world, in order to promote the official publications of the EU. Today there are 544 Documentation Centres all over the world, of which 324 are to be found in member states. There are nine Documentation Centres in Greece, operating mainly in cities hosting universities.
Following a decision of the European Commission, the CIEEL was appointed in 1978 as a European Documentation Centre (EDC), three years before the accession of Greece into the European Communities. The CIEEL is the first EDC that has been established in Greece and is considered to be a “full” European Documentation Centre, thus receiving , on a regular basis all the documentation published by European institutions. It also has privileged access to EU databases.
Its collection includes information on the EU, such as legislation, case law, reports, statistics, bulletins and press releases, dating back to the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community.
Most documents are available in two languages: in either Greek and English or French and English.
The European Documentation Centre provides its services to the university community (professors, students, researchers) as well as to businessmen, individuals, public organizations, teachers and students in secondary education.
Aim:
- Support the educational and research work of universities and research institutes, in matters concerning the EU Integration,
- Contribute to the information of European citizens on EU policies in cooperation with other inorfmation networks, and
- Facilitate the access of citizens to all EU documents received by the EDC.
The EDC provides:
- A fully systemized catalogue of EU documents, in order to provide easy-access to european documents
- Access to EU databases, such as Celex, Scad, Rapid, Eclas, under the guidance of trained personnel
- Assistance to users in navigating the Europa portal, as well as other electronic sources of information
- Assistance to users for selecting bibliography related to their research work
In order to facilitate users, the EDC also possesses:
- Three computers for research purposes
- Printing facilities
- Microfiche processor and printer
- Photocopier