1. Structure of the Official Journal
1.1. General structure
The Official Journal of the European Union consists of three series:
The L and C series are published act by act on a daily basis, from Monday to Friday, and also on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays in urgent cases.
Until 30 September 2023, the daily editions of the Official Journal were compilations of documents published on the same day. With the introduction of act-by-act publication on 1 October 2023, every issue of the Official Journal contains only one document.
Publishing act by act increases both the flexibility and the speed of the publication process. All documents are now published independently, making the use of additional series for urgent publications unnecessary. As a result, the L … I and C … I series were discontinued as of 1 October 2023, and only the main L and C series remain. The C … A series has also been discontinued.
Referencing of the Official Journal is based on its series, the number of the document (except for international agreements and corrigenda), the date of publication and the ELI – the page reference has become obsolete. For more on referencing, see Section 3.1 ‘References to the Official Journal’.
L series
The L series covers the following heading:
See also Section 1.2 ‘L series’.
C series
The C series covers the following heading:
Given the number of different acts published in the C series, there is a greater variety of form (typographical presentations) than in the L series, but the rules to be complied with are the same for both.
See also Section 1.3 ‘C series’.
The C series was supplemented by the C … A, the C … E (discontinued as of 1 April 2014) and the C … I series. The ellipses represent the daily C series edition number of the same day.
This series was reserved for the publication of open competitions, vacancy notices and common catalogues (varieties of agricultural species etc.).
This series was reserved for the publication of certain texts, such as Council positions under the ordinary legislative procedure or minutes and texts adopted by the European Parliament. They are available on the EUR-Lex site (and on the monthly DVD that was produced at the time).
OJ C 137, 27.5.2010
OJ C 137 A, 27.5.2010
OJ C 137 E, 27.5.2010
OJ C 119 I, 5.4.2018
S series
The S series (S = supplement) is for the publication of calls for tender for public contracts, along with notices from the European Development Fund and other institutions, bodies, offices and agencies. It is available on the internet (TED database) and on DVD.
