Fórum Europeu dos Jornais Oficiais

1. Opening remarks (K. Schiessl, T. L. Cranfield)

2. Election of the president and vice-president

3. ‘Background and aims of the European Forum of Official Gazettes – a critical analysis’ (J. Esteves Pinto)

4. Official creation of the Forum following adoption of its statutes

5. Information on the questionnaire and on the Forum web site (A. Berger, Forum Secretariat)

6. ‘Organisation and responsibilities of official gazettes’ (J.-P. Bolufer)

7. Welcome address (A. Khol, President of the Austrian Parliament)

8. ‘Official publication in the European Union - current status and outlook’ (K. Schiessl)

9. Discussion of subjects to be dealt with at subsequent meetings (N. Koch)

10. Conclusion and closing remarks

Mr Schiessl welcomes the participants and gives a short introduction to the agenda. He thanks Mr Pinto for the iniative he took in April 2003, on the occasion of the informal meeting of heads of official gazettes in Luxembourg, to launch the idea of the Forum of Official Gazettes.

In his opening remarks, Mr Cranfield expresses his thanks to Mr Schiessl for having invited the official gazettes to Vienna for the inaugural meeting of the Forum and for the warm welcome extended to all participants, as well as to members of the Working Party chaired by Mr Pinto for their preparatory work.

Mr Schiessl is elected Chairman of the meeting and President of the Forum for the period 2004/2005. The proposal of the Danish Ministry of Justice to hold the 2005 meeting in Copenhagen is accepted and Ms Koch is elected Vice-President of the Forum.

Mr Pinto presents his paper on the ‘Background and aims of the European Forum of Official Gazettes – a critical analysis’.

The draft statutes are adopted (see annex 2) and Mr Schiessl declares the Forum officially created.

Mr Berger of the Forum Secretariat outlines the structure and contents of the Forum web site opened on 2 September 2004 at the following internet address: http://forum.europa.eu.int/irc/opoce/ojf/info/data/prod/html/index.htm

Mr Berger recalls the access code for the section restricted to Forum members (...). The Forum members agree that some of the documents in this section, in particular the answers by official gazettes to the Forum questionnaire, will for the time being not be opened to the public.

Mr Berger explains that replies to the questionnaire have been received from the official gazettes of all 25 Member States, the Publications Office, the 3 candidate countries and Norway and Bosnia and Herzegovina. These answers now need to undergo some editorial review, which the Secretariat will carry out in co-operation with the official gazettes of Hungary and Austria.

Mr Berger indicates that the answers to the questionnaire of the MHK, the Hungarian Official gazette, are available as a working paper for this meeting (brochure ‘Official journals of the Member States of the European Union’). Ms Ivancsics of the MHK takes the opportunity to thank, on behalf of Mr. Kodela, all official gazettes present for their willingness to co-operate and to answer the questionnaire.

Mr Cranfield draws the attention of the participants to the fact that the answers need to be supplemented by statistical data on the legislative production in Member States, namely:

- the amount of new primary and secondary legislation published during one year
- the total amount of (primary and secondary) legislation in force.

This information is not only of crucial value, as a reference point, for the institutions of the European Union, but has also been requested by certain national ministries. Questions concerning this information will be sent to all official gazettes in the framework of the above-mentioned editorial review project.

Mr Bolufer presents his paper on the ‘Organisation and responsibilities of official gazettes’.

At the beginning of the afternoon session, Mr Khol, the President of the Austrian Parliament, addresses the Forum, underlining the importance of the work done by the official gazettes for the functioning of democracy.

In his talk on ‘Official publication in the European Union - current status and outlook’, Mr Schiessl stresses the difference between simply publishing official texts, on the one hand, and offering value-added information services, on the other.

The Forum agrees to Ms Koch’s proposal of the list of topics to be dealt with at subsequent meetings:

- Common use of XML for the production and distribution of official gazettes
- Electronic collection and dissemination of public calls for tender
- Long-term preservation of the electronic official gazette
- Techniques of authentification of texts published in the electronic gazette
- Seamless production process of the official gazette.

Mr Cranfield explains the procedure envisaged for setting up the corresponding working parties: the Forum Secretariat will send invitations for the nomination of experts to all heads of official gazettes. The working parties will then be put together on the basis of the nominations received. Official gazettes may also indicate their wish only to be kept informed about the work carried out by a given working party.

In his conclusion, Mr Schiessl sums up the main themes of the discussions of the day. He mentions, in particular, three main topics which could not all be addressed in-depth:

- the future of official publications online
- publications of texts vs (value-added) information
- public vs private competences in official publication.

Before closing the meeting, Mr Schiessl thanks His Excellency Mr Balzan, the Maltese Ambassador to Austria, for his presence at the meeting and gives the floor to Ms Leskovic. Ms Leskovic repeats the invitation of the Slovenian official gazette to hold the 2006 annual meeting in Ljubljana, which the Forum accepts with gratitude.

Speaking for all participants, Mr Cranfield thanks Mr Schiessl and his staff for the hospitality of the Wiener Zeitung and the excellent organisation of the meeting.

List of participants

Statutes