Search help

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Which search to use

The explanations below will guide you on how to get the best out of the search engines at your disposal to find a document on the Committee of Ministers’ website.

The search by reference allows you to find a document by its identification number, for example: CM/Del/Dec(2009)1073.

The “full text search” allows you to search for a term in the core of the document as Google does. The search results can be refined by using the “Advanced search” options in the same way as you do in Google.

The multi-criteria search allows you to search on words in the title of the document and/or to search by combining different criteria (language, document type, theme, sector…).

Search by reference
Full text search
Multi-criteria search (metadata)

Search by reference 

Use this search tool if you know the document identification number. You may choose to only search for documents in English or French. Hit ENTER or click on “Search” to launch the search.

Example: CM/Del/Dec(2009)1073

You may also search for a partial reference after deselecting the “Match exact” box.

Example: CM/Del/OJ(2009)1073

You may also search for several references at the same time after selecting “any word”.

Example: DPA/Inf(2009)33 and GR-C(2009)12

Please note:

If you are unsure of the exact reference, please deselect the “Match exact” box.

There are no spaces in our references.

Example:
If you are looking for CM(2000)52, this should be typed as cm(2000)52 and not cm (2000) 52.

Documents issued before 2000 have a two-digit year:

Examples:
CM(91)30
Res(89)3

Documents issued since 2000 have a four-digit year:

Examples:
CM(2003)57
Rec(2000)26

Decisions taken before 2003 are referenced: meeting number/item on the agenda

Example:
817/1.2

Decisions taken since 2003 are referenced: CM/Del/Dec(year)meeting number/item on the agenda

Example:
CM/Del/Dec(2003)856/1.2

Rapporteur, Working Group and Thematic Co-ordinator references contain a hyphen:

Examples:
gr-c(98)3
gt-ref.inst(2007)4
tc-enf(2008)2

Recommendation references are always “Rec” (not “Recommendation”). Since 2007, all references begin with “CM/Rec”.

Examples:
Rec(89)6
CM/Rec(2008)10
CM/RecChL(2007)3

Resolution references are always “Res” (not “Resolution”). Since 2007, all references begin with “CM/Res”.

Examples:
Res(80)32
CM/Res(2009)12
CM/ResCMN(2007)9

Full text search 

Use this search tool to search for a term within the content of documents.

· Sector

If you do not know which sector to choose, please select “All sectors”.

There are three ways to display the search results.

· Sort by relevance:

This is the default setting whereby the most “relevant” documents appear first. (Relevance is based on how many of the search terms appear in the document, the number of times they appear, their proximity to each other, their position in the document, etc.)

When displaying the results by relevance, the results will include one or more of the search terms.

Example: if you type European Union, the search will look for all documents containing: european union or european or union.

In order to restrict the search to an exact phrase, please use the advanced search option: “This exact wording or phrase”.

· Sort by date of publication or By reference

When displaying the results by date of publication (most recent first) or by reference (listed in alphabetical order), the results will include all the search terms.

Example: if you type European Union, the search will look for all documents containing: european and union. The words may not appear together.

In order to restrict the search to an exact phrase, please use the advanced search option: “This exact wording or phrase”.

· Advanced search

You may refine your search by using the advanced search options.

The documents returned by the search engine should contain:
All these words	but they do not need to be together in a phrase or in the same word order Example: freedom journalists
This exact wording or phrase	in exactly the same word order, with no variations Example: freedom of expression
One or more of these words	any of the search terms Example: media journalists press
The documents returned by the search engine should not contain:
Unwanted words	any of these words Example: you wish to find documents containing the words “freedom” and “journalists” but do not wish to find documents on “freedom of expression”: All these words: freedom journalists Unwanted words: expression

You may also use the asterisk (*) sign as a substitution for one or more characters. It allows you to search on keywords “beginning with”.

Example : europ* will find documents containing “Europe”, but also “European”, “Europarat”, etc 

Multi-criteria search (metadata) 

Use this search tool if you wish to filter your search by any of the criteria listed below (language, document type, theme, etc). The criteria can be cross-referenced.

This tool does not search within the content of documents. However, if your search returns less than 600 documents, you may then perform a full-text search within the results found.

This tool does not allow the use of any search operators (eg. “” * + -).

The results are displayed by date of publication with the most recent documents appearing first.

Reference / Keywords		Search on words from the document title or by document reference
Search period		Restrict the search to a specific time period Example: Between 2007 and 2009
Language		Restrict the search to find documents in one language only Example: English or French
Document		Restrict the search to find one type of document only Example: Decision, Recommendation, Notes on the agenda, etc
Subject	Theme Entity Country Event	Restrict the search to any of the four subject fields Example: Theme=Natural heritage; Country=Turkey (These fields are most reliable for documents published since 2003.)
Author	Sector	Restrict the search to documents produced by a specific Council of Europe sector Example: Committee of Ministers, Secretary General, etc or open the search to include “All Sectors”
	Level	Once you have selected a specific sector, you may access sub-groups belonging to that sector Example: Rapporteur Group on Democracy