What is DORIE?
DORIE (which stands for DOcumentation et Recherche sur les questions Institutionnelles Européennes) is a database providing colleagues interested in institutional issues, and a specialised audience via Europa, with access to the collection of documents put together over the years by the unit in the Secretariat-General responsible for institutional issues. It is not an exhaustive collection, but contains a selection of documents or excerpts of documents relating to general institutional issues and to the various intergovernmental conferences (including the 2002-03 European Convention) that have made changes to the founding treaties. You will also find in DORIE recent documents related to institutional issues. The time period covered in DORIE goes from 1946 (oldest document available in the application) until nowadays.
What types of documents does DORIE contain?
The database contains legal instruments adopted by the Institutions, minutes of meetings of European Institutions and bodies, press releases, newspaper articles, speeches by European leaders and internal Commission notes. Your search will give you access to an information sheet for each document, as well as to the document itself, unless the text is protected by copyright. Some documents are for internal Commission use only and may not be disseminated outside the Institution.
Languages in the database
You can search this specialised information database in English and French. For historical reasons, many documents, some of which date back to the early days of the European Community, are available only in French or English. Some documents are in several languages, with a small number available in all languages. If you cannot retrieve the language version you are looking for in DORIE, you may be able to find it in other databases such as Vista or Eur-Lex.
How can you search the database?
Cross references will allow you to find the positions taken by the various European decision-makers on institutional themes which are listed in a browsable directory tree (e.g. Council of the European Union/Voting-decision-making procedures/Definition of qualified majority). You may search the database using the "Themes" criterion or opt for other criteria proposed in the "Main fields" tab, i.e. document title, date, reference and/or type, arena in which the position was expressed (e.g. Intergovernmental Conference, IGC/Amsterdam), author of the position expressed (e.g. Commission). You may combine several search criteria or use the "full text" search.