Our mission
Each EU institution, including the European Parliament, has the legal obligation to identify, acquire, and maintain an archive of its official documents. The Archives of the European Parliament exist since the launch of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1952 and its fonds now number around five million items. The European Parliament Archives are keepers of Parliament’s ‘memory’ and should with their holdings and services reflect Parliament’s history and development as accurately as possible, particularly when it comes to European integration. In order to achieve this, the work of the Archives Unit consists in the management and preservation of Parliament’s official documents and other archival material. The Unit supports Members and the administration in accessing the historical records they need for their work. Access to and use of archives is another key task for the Archives of the European Parliament and it makes the archives publicly accessible, assists academic researchers in retrieving them for their use, and carries out promotional activities such as events and exhibitions.
The on-going objectives of the Archives Unit are
- the acquisition of materials of historical value of the European Parliament, their orderly organisation for future access, and their preservation;
- the acquisition, management, and treatment of documents of the European Parliament to ensure their organisation and long-term preservation;
- ensuring access to these materials and their use for the promotion of the understanding of the history of the European Parliament and of European integration more widely.
