The Archives of the European Institutions are a crucial source of information for all those who are interested in the history of the European Union and the European integration.

The Institutions and Organs of the European Union have a common legal basis for the opening of their historical archives to the public¹ . This common legal basis fulfils three main objectives:

- encouragement of research into the history of the European Communities;
- promotion of public interest in the development of the European integration;
- greater transparency of the workings of the European Institutions.

The accessibility of the historical archives of the EU-Institutions and Organs is based on the 30 years rule . Beyond this period, the Historical Archives of the European Union, in Florence ( Italy ) is the repository of the historical archives of the EU Institutions for preservation and access to the public.

Taking into account this common legal basis and given their specific character, each Institution and Organ has its own Archives Service which is responsible for the management of the concerned documents and files and covers the whole lifecycle of documents.

From the outset, the different Institutions and Organs of the European Union felt that, regardless of their own specific characteristics, which are to be fully respected, their different Archives Services should work progressively closer together, in view of the opening to the public of the historical archives , on the bas is o f the Community regulations mentioned above. Thus, a continuing archival collaboration was created and developed not only between the EU-Institutions and Organs themselves, but also with the EU-Member States, and in particular with the National Archives Services of the Member States and the Archives Services of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs.

For further information about the Archives Service of each European Institution:

¹ OJ L 43, 15.2.1983, p. 1 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31983R0354:EN:HTML; OJ L 243, 27.9.2003, p. 1 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:243:0001:0004:EN:PDF.