eurlex-mcp-server

Search and retrieve EU law via the EUR-Lex Cellar API -- an MCP server that gives AI assistants direct access to EU regulations, directives, court decisions, and more. No API key required.

What You Can Do

Ask your AI assistant questions like:

• "Find EU regulations about artificial intelligence from 2024"
• "Show me the full text of the AI Act (32024R1689)"
• "What EuroVoc topics are assigned to the GDPR?"
• "Which documents cite the Digital Services Act?"
• "Search for directives about renewable energy"
• "Get the consolidated version of Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR)"

Features

• 6 specialized tools for searching, fetching, and analyzing EU legal documents
• EuroVoc thesaurus search -- find documents by EU taxonomy concepts
• Consolidated versions -- retrieve the latest in-force text of regulations, directives, and decisions
• Citation graph -- explore which documents cite or are cited by a given act
• Structured metadata -- access dates, EuroVoc descriptors, legal basis, and more
• Multi-language -- supports English, German, and French
• No API key required -- uses the public EUR-Lex Cellar SPARQL endpoint

Quick Start

pnpm dlx eurlex-mcp-server

Or with npx:

npx -y eurlex-mcp-server

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eurlex": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "eurlex-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add eurlex-mcp-server -- npx -y eurlex-mcp-server

VS Code

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "eurlex": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "eurlex-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eurlex": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "eurlex-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to ~/.windsurf/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eurlex": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "eurlex-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Tool Reference

eurlex_search

Full-text search across EUR-Lex documents.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | query | string | yes | -- | Search term (3-500 chars), e.g. "artificial intelligence high risk" | | resource_type | string | no | "any" | Document type filter: REG, DIR, DEC, JUDG, REG_IMPL, REG_DEL, DIR_IMPL, DIR_DEL, DEC_IMPL, DEC_DEL, ORDER, OPIN_AG, RECO, any | | language | string | no | "DEU" | Language for titles and full text: DEU, ENG, FRA | | limit | number | no | 10 | Max results (1-50) | | date_from | string | no | -- | Filter from date, format: YYYY-MM-DD | | date_to | string | no | -- | Filter to date, format: YYYY-MM-DD |

eurlex_fetch

Retrieve the full text of a document by its CELEX identifier.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | celex_id | string | yes | -- | CELEX identifier, e.g. "32024R1689" for the AI Act | | language | string | no | "DEU" | Language: DEU, ENG, FRA | | format | string | no | "xhtml" | Output format: xhtml (structured) or plain (tags stripped) | | max_chars | number | no | 20000 | Max characters returned (1000-50000) |

eurlex_metadata

Retrieve structured metadata for a document (dates, EuroVoc descriptors, legal basis, etc.).

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | celex_id | string | yes | -- | CELEX identifier, e.g. "32024R1689" | | language | string | no | "DEU" | Language for titles and EuroVoc labels: DEU, ENG, FRA |

eurlex_citations

Explore the citation graph of a document -- which acts it cites and which acts cite it.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | celex_id | string | yes | -- | CELEX identifier, e.g. "32024R1689" | | language | string | no | "DEU" | Language for titles: DEU, ENG, FRA | | direction | string | no | "both" | cites (outgoing), cited_by (incoming), or both | | limit | number | no | 20 | Max results (1-100) |

eurlex_by_eurovoc

Find documents by EuroVoc thesaurus concept (label or URI).

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | concept | string | yes | -- | EuroVoc concept: label (e.g. "artificial intelligence") or URI (e.g. "http://eurovoc.europa.eu/4424") | | resource_type | string | no | "any" | Document type filter (same values as eurlex_search) | | language | string | no | "DEU" | Language: DEU, ENG, FRA | | limit | number | no | 10 | Max results (1-50) |

eurlex_consolidated

Retrieve the consolidated (in-force) version of a regulation, directive, or decision.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | doc_type | string | yes | -- | Document type: reg (regulation), dir (directive), dec (decision) | | year | number | yes | -- | Year of the act (1950-2100), e.g. 2024 | | number | number | yes | -- | Document number, e.g. 1689 | | language | string | no | "DEU" | Language: DEU, ENG, FRA | | format | string | no | "xhtml" | Output format: xhtml or plain | | max_chars | number | no | 20000 | Max characters returned (1000-50000) |

CELEX Number Schema

CELEX identifiers uniquely identify EU legal documents. The format is:

[sector][year][type][number]

• Sector (1 digit): 3 = legislation, 6 = case law, 5 = preparatory acts
• Year (4 digits): year of the document
• Type (1-2 letters): R = regulation, L = directive, D = decision, J = judgment, etc.
• Number: sequential number

Examples:

| CELEX | Document | |-------|----------| | 32024R1689 | AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) | | 32016R0679 | GDPR (Regulation 2016/679) | | 32022R2065 | Digital Services Act (Regulation 2022/2065) | | 62014CJ0131 | Court of Justice case C-131/14 |

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/philrox/eurlex-mcp-server.git
cd eurlex-mcp-server
pnpm install
pnpm build

Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | pnpm dev | Start dev server with hot reload | | pnpm build | Compile TypeScript | | pnpm test | Run unit tests | | pnpm test:watch | Run tests in watch mode | | pnpm test:integration | Run integration tests (hits real API) | | pnpm start | Start production server |

Testing

pnpm test              # unit tests
pnpm test:integration  # integration tests (hits real API)

Limitations

• Rate limits: The EUR-Lex Cellar API is public but may throttle excessive requests.
• Document availability: Not all documents have full text in all languages.
• Consolidated versions: Only available for regulations, directives, and decisions.
• Response size: Full text is truncated at max_chars (default 20,000 characters) to stay within LLM context limits.
• SPARQL timeouts: Complex EuroVoc queries may occasionally time out on the Cellar endpoint.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, architecture overview, and submission guidelines.

License

MIT