Publications Office – Interinstitutional Style Guide

Part Four has been revised, see details.

News
Foreword
Preface
References (legal basis and mandate)
Introduction
Part One – Official Journal
Preamble
1. Structure of the Official Journal
1.1. General structure
1.2. L series
1.2.1. Classification of acts
1.2.2. Numbering of acts
1.2.3. Contents
1.3. C series
1.3.1. Classification of documents
1.3.2. Numbering of documents
1.3.3. Contents
2. Structure of a legal act
2.1. Title
2.2. Preamble (citations and recitals)
2.3. Articles (enacting terms)
2.4. Compulsory character of regulations
2.5. Concluding formulas (place, date and signature)
2.6. Annexes
2.7. Subdivisions of acts
3. Rules on drafting documents
3.1. References to the Official Journal
3.2. References to an act
3.2.1. Forms of title
3.2.2. Referring to other acts
3.2.3. References to subdivisions of an act
3.2.4. References to amendments to an act
3.3. Amending provisions
3.3.1. Amendments in the text
3.3.2. Additions and numbering
3.4. Order of citation
3.4.1. Order of the Treaties
3.4.2. Order by author
3.4.3. Countries
3.4.4. Languages and multilingual texts
3.4.5. Currencies
3.5. Lists
3.5.1. Listed points – presentation
3.5.2. Listing of acts
3.6. Definition of an expression or a word
3.7. International agreements
Summary tables
Part Two – General publications
4. Document preparation and identifiers
4.1. Authors, authorising departments, Publications Office and printshops
4.1.1. Authors and the Publications Office
4.1.2. Project management at the Publications Office
4.1.3. Proofreading at the Publications Office
4.2. Original documents (manuscripts)
4.2.1. Principle of a production chain
4.2.2. Logical structure of documents
4.2.3. Text preparation
4.2.4. Camera-ready documents
4.3. Publication types
4.3.1. Monographs
4.3.2. Continuing resources
4.3.3. Combined serial publications and monographs
4.4. Identifiers assigned by the Publications Office
4.4.1. International standard book number (ISBN)
4.4.2. International standard serial number (ISSN)
4.4.3. Digital object identifier (DOI)
4.4.4. Catalogue number
4.5. Identifier assigned by the Court of Justice of the European Union
5. Structure of a publication
5.1. Cover
5.1.1. Components
5.1.2. Use of colour on covers
5.2. Title page
5.3. Verso of the title page
5.3.1. Components
5.3.2. Information relating to the printed paper product
5.4. Copyright
5.4.1. Reproduction rights (copyright notice)
5.4.2. Copyright qualification (right to reproduction and/or reuse)
5.4.3. Legal notice (disclaimer formula)
5.4.4. Reproduction of artistic elements (drawings, photographs, etc.)
5.5. Preliminary pages and end-matter
5.5.1. Dedication
5.5.2. Foreword, preface and introduction
5.5.3. Contents
5.5.4. Bibliographies
5.5.5. Index
5.6. Divisions of the text
5.7. Listed points
5.8. Emphasis
5.9. References
5.9.1. References to EU legislation
5.9.2. References to the treaties
5.9.3. References to cases before the Court of Justice and the General Court
5.9.4. Bibliographic references
5.10. Quotations
5.11. Artistic material (illustrations)
5.12. Tables
Part Three – Conventions common to all languages
6. Typographic instructions and revision of the text
6.1. Reading the manuscript
6.2. Reading electronic manuscripts
6.3. Proof-correction marks
6.4. Word-processor punctuation marks and spacing
6.5. Punctuation in figures
7. Countries, languages, currencies and their abbreviations
7.1. Countries
7.1.1. Designations and abbreviations to use
7.1.2. Country listing order
7.2. Languages
7.2.1. Order of language versions and ISO codes (multilingual texts)
7.2.2. Listing languages in text (unilingual texts)
7.2.3. Indication of languages published
7.2.4. Rules governing the languages of the institutions
7.3. Currencies
7.3.1. The euro and the cent
7.3.2. Order of the currencies and ISO codes
7.3.3. Rules for expressing monetary units
8. Footnotes and their references
8.1. Footnote references
8.2. Order of footnotes
9. Other conventions
9.1. Addresses
9.1.1. Addresses: general principles
9.1.2. Addresses in unilingual documents
9.1.3. Addresses in multilingual documents
9.1.4. Addresses in the Member States: presentation and examples
9.1.5. Addresses in the Member States: specific characteristics
9.2. Electronic addresses
9.3. Telephone numbers
9.4. Citation of works and references to the Official Journal
9.5. Administrative structure of the European Union: official titles and listing order
9.5.1. Institutions and bodies
9.5.2. Interinstitutional services
9.5.3. Decentralised organisations (agencies)
9.5.4. Executive agencies
9.5.5. Euratom agencies and bodies
9.5.6. Other organisations
9.6. Commission directorates-general and services: official titles
Part Four – Publications in English
10. House rules for the preparation of the text
10.1. Punctuation
10.1.1. Full stop
10.1.2. Question mark
10.1.3. Exclamation mark
10.1.4. Colon
10.1.5. Semicolon
10.1.6. Comma
10.1.7. Brackets
10.1.8. Dashes and hyphens
10.1.9. Quotation marks
10.1.10. Ellipsis
10.1.11. Forward slash
10.1.12. Apostrophe
10.2. Verbs
10.2.1. Singular or plural agreement?
10.2.2. Tenses of minutes and summary records
10.3. Spelling
10.3.1. Conventions
10.3.2. Tricky plurals
10.3.3. Interference effects and in-house words, expressions and constructions
10.4. Upper and lower case
10.5. Numbers, dates and time
10.6. Gender-neutral language
10.7. Italics
10.8. Abbreviations and symbols
10.9. Referring to the European Union and its Member States
11. Reference works
Annexes
Annex A1 – Graphics guide to the European emblem
Annex A2 – Emblems
Annex A3 – Abbreviations and symbols in common use
Annex A4 – Main acronyms and initialisms
Annex A5 – List of countries, territories and currencies
Annex A6 – Country and territory codes
Annex A7 – Currency codes
Annex A8 – Language codes (European Union)
Annex A9 – Institutions, bodies, interinstitutional services and organisations: multilingual list
Annex A10 – Regions
Annex C – Miscellaneous
Index

Contents