Library and academia

Library

The Library provides Members of the European Parliament, their staff and the parliamentary community with online and on-site access to a broad range of material relevant to the work of the Parliament. Its multilingual collection includes books, e-books, EP publications, newspapers and journals, in electronic and printed formats. The materials focus primarily on European policies, law, economics, international relations, trade, and science and technology, among other fields. The EP library catalogue is accessible online.

The Parliament’s Library participates in Inter-library loans. Interested users may enquire with their own library to see if it is possible to borrow a book from the EP Library (see our catalogue). This applies to physical books only; e-books cannot be loaned this way. Before submitting your request, please check whether the book you are looking for is already available in your own institution’s library. You can contact the EP library at library@europarl.europa.eu.

The Library operates reading rooms in Brussels and Strasbourg, which are open exclusively to the EP community. In addition, the library corner at the Info Hubon the Solidarność 1980 Esplanade in Brussels allows the general public to consult each month a different section from the multilingual Library for Europe collection. Topics covered include history, culture, science, philosophy, fiction, poetry, as well as scientific texts, graphic novels, comics, and youth literature.

Our open library for research has specialised collections. They include a legislative collection for quick access to key information of legislation in the making, a comparative law collection, and a collection on EU history.

The Brussels Library also hosts internal events on various topics and offers its venue for events organised by Members.

Study visits and academia

EPRS also offers researchers and students the opportunity to access parliamentary resources through several initiatives, including study visits that provide full access to Library resources.

Applicants interested in a one-week library study visit are required to submit their application via e-mail to eprs-libraryvisits@europarl.europa.eu. Those wishing to apply for a monthly library study visit should send their application to PERS-StudyVisit@europarl.europa.eu. Applications must be submitted at least one month prior to the proposed visit date. Find out more in the general information about study visits to the European Parliament.

European Parliament forum for academic freedom

Established in 2022, the forum produces the Academic Freedom Monitor, an annual independent report about the state of play of academic freedom in the European Union.