What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file stored on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website.

• First-party cookies are set by the website you visit. Only that website can read them. Additionally, a website may use external services that set their own cookies, known as third-party cookies.
• Persistent cookies are saved on your computer and are not automatically deleted when you close your browser, unlike a session cookie, which is deleted when you exit your browser.

Each time you visit the Commission’s websites, you will be prompted to accept or reject cookies.

The purpose is to enable the site to remember your preferences (such as username, language, etc.) for a certain period.

This way, you don’t have to re-enter them while browsing the site during the same visit.

Cookies can also be used to generate anonymized statistics about the browsing experience on our sites.

How do we use cookies?

The European Commission websites primarily use 'first-party cookies.' These are cookies set and controlled by the Commission, not by any external organization.

However, to view some of our pages, you will need to accept cookies from external organizations.

The 3 types of first-party cookies we use are:

• Store Visitor Preferences
• Make our websites operational
• Collect analytics data (about user behavior)

Visitor preferences

These are set by us and can only be read by us. They remember:

• Whether you have accepted (or rejected) this site’s cookie policy
• Whether you have already responded to our survey pop-up (about the usefulness of the site’s content) – so you won’t be asked again

Operational cookies

There are some cookies we must include for certain web pages to function. For this reason, they do not require your consent. In particular:

• Authentication cookies
• Technical cookies required for certain IT systems

Analytics cookies

We use these solely for internal research to investigate how we can improve the service we offer to all our users.

Cookies assess how you interact with our website as an anonymous user (the collected data does not identify you personally).

Additionally, this data is not shared with third parties or used for any other purpose. Anonymized statistics may be shared with contractors working on communication projects under a contractual agreement with the Commission.

However, you are free to reject these types of cookies – via the cookie banner you’ll see on the first page you visit.

Third-party cookies

Some of our pages display content from external providers such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

To view this third-party content, you must first accept their specific terms and conditions. This includes their cookie policies, over which we have no control.

However, if you do not view this content, no third-party cookies will be installed on your device.

How can you manage cookies?

Removing cookies from your device

You can delete all cookies on your device by clearing your browser’s browsing history. This will remove all cookies from all websites you’ve visited.

However, note that you may also lose some saved information (e.g., saved login details, site preferences).

Managing site-specific cookies

For more detailed control over site-specific cookies, check the privacy and cookie settings in your preferred browser.

Blocking cookies

You can set most modern browsers to prevent any cookies from being placed on your device, but you may then need to manually adjust some preferences each time you visit a site/page. Some services and functionalities may not work properly (e.g., profile login).