Europa is the official
web portal of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
(EU), providing information on how the EU works, related news, events, publications and links to websites of
institutions
Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...
,
agencies and other bodies. ''.europa.eu'' is also used as a common
second level domain
In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain (SLD or 2LD) is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). For example, in , is the second-level domain of the TLD.
Second-level domains commonly refer to the organ ...
for the websites of the EU's bodies, for instance ''iss.europa.eu'' is the address of the
Institute for Security Studies
The Institute for Security Studies, also known as ISS or ISS Africa (to distinguish itself from other similarly named institutes in other parts of the world), described itself as follows: "an African organisation which aims to enhance human se ...
.
Europa was first published in February 1995 at the
G7 ministerial meeting on information society in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. Originally designed for that specific event, the portal expanded rapidly and the European Commission decided to develop it into a general information resource, specialising in the work and domain of the EU's bodies.
Laws and documents of major public interest are published in all 24 official
EU languages. Documents that are not legally binding are usually published in the EU's institutional ''working languages''; English, French and German.
Services
Europa also offers other services such as
* EU la
(EUR-Lex)* EU TV information service, (
Europe by satellite)
*
EU Open Databr>
(EU Open Data Portal)
* contact data of EU officials in management position
* EU research and developmen
(CORDIS)* public procuremen
(TED)
See also
{{Portal, European Union
*
Agency of the European Union
*
Institutions of the European Union
The institutions of the European Union are the seven principal decision-making bodies of the European Union and the Euratom. They are, as listed in Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union:
* the European Parliament,
* the European Counci ...
*
EUR-Lex
*
European NAvigator
*
Publications Office of the European Union
External links
Europa
Information technology organizations based in Europe
portal
Portal often refers to:
* Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel
Portal may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Gaming
* ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...
Web portals
Internet properties established in 1995
1995 establishments in Europe