EU MoU Repository
Memoranda of understanding play an increasingly important role in the EU’s external relations. These non-legally binding instruments are used across key policy areas, from migration and energy to environmental cooperation, trade and critical raw materials.
Yet finding them is surprisingly difficult. Unlike binding international agreements, memoranda of understanding are not systematically recorded in a single EU database. Their texts are scattered across different institutional sources, making it difficult to know how many have been concluded, what they cover, and where to find them.
This database brings them together in one place.
Eager to make the identification and retrieval of memoranda of understanding more transparent and less time-consuming, the Institute of Policy Making at Bocconi University, with Professor Eleanor Spaventa, PhD Edith Wagner and PhD Marco Gerbaudo, created the Memorandum of Understanding database.
The database comprises all Memoranda of Understanding signed since 2018 that have been identified and collected by the research team. For each listed memorandum, the database provides a link to the webpage where the document is available, together with a PDF copy.
Where available, the database includes the relevant preparatory documents (Commission intention to enter into a memorandum of understanding; Council Authorisation to negotiate a non-binding instrument; Commission Decision on the signature of a non-binding instrument; Council Authorisation to sign a non-binding instrument) together with links to the original sources and attached PDF copies.
The memoranda of understanding are stored in chronological order. In the search bar, you can customize your research by searching documents by title and keywords, as well as by year and signature country.
