Cookies

Cookies

To make the websites managed by the European Commission work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site.

First party cookies are cookies set by the website you are visiting. Only that website can read them. In addition, a website might potentially use external services, which also set their own cookies, known as third-party cookies.
Persistent cookies are cookies saved on your computer and that are not deleted automatically when you quit your browser, unlike a session cookie, which is deleted when you quit your browser.

Every time you visit the websites managed by the European Commission, you will be prompted to accept or refuse cookies.

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

That way, you do not have to re-enter them when browsing around the site during the same visit.

Cookies can also be used to establish anonymised statistics about the browsing experience on our sites.

How do we use cookies?

The websites managed by the European Commission mostly use first-party cookies. These are cookies set and controlled by the European Commission, not by any external organisation.

However, to view some of our pages, you will have to accept cookies from external organisations.

The 3 types of first-party cookie we use are to:

store visitor preferences
make our websites operational
gather analytics data (about user behaviour).

1. Visitor preferences

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

if you have agreed to (or refused) this site’s cookie policy
if you have already replied to our survey pop-up (about how helpful the site content was) – so you will not be asked again.

Visitor preferences cookies are:

Name: eu_cookie_consent

Services: Cookie consent kit

Purpose: Stores your cookie preferences (so you will not be asked again)

Cookie type and duration: First-party session cookie deleted after you quit your browser

Name: ecsi

Services: Website survey tools

Purpose: Stores information on whether you have already replied to a survey pop-up – so you will not be asked again

Cookie type and duration: First-party persistent cookie, 1 month

2. Operational cookies

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

Authentication cookies: these are stored when you log in to a site managed by the European Commission, using our authentication service (EU Login). When you do this, you accept the associated privacy policy.

Authentication cookies are:

Name: MyEACSDomain

Services: Identity Management Service

Purpose: Remembers your domain

Cookie type and duration: First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser

Name: __Secure_CASTGC

Services: Identity Management Service

Purpose: Identifies your session

Cookie type and duration: First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser

Name: __Secure_ECAS_SESSIONID

Services: Identity Management Service

Purpose: Identifies the current Central Authentication Service session

Cookie type and duration: First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser

Name: ECAS_PREFS

Services: Identity Management Service

Purpose: Remembers your settings and preferences: user id, user name, acknowledged cookie policy, high contrast mode, privacy mode, view account details after login, last strength selected

Cookie type and duration: First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser

The names of these cookies may change, for technical reasons (particularly __Secure-CASTGC and __Secure-ECAS_SESSIONID).

Technical cookies required by certain IT systems are:

Name: has_js

Services: Corporate content management platform, based on Drupal open source software

Purpose: Determines whether Javascript is enabled in your browser. This allows our websites to function properly

Cookie type and duration: First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser

Name: JSESSIONID / CFID / CFTOKEN

Services: Java IT platform / Coldfusion IT platform

Purpose: Maintain a secure session for you, during your visit

Cookie type and duration: First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser

Name: ecsi

Services: Website survey tools

Purpose: Stores information on whether you have already replied to a survey pop-up – so you will not be asked again

Cookie type and duration: First-party persistent cookie, 1 month

3. Analytics cookies

We use these purely for internal research on how we can improve the service we provide for all our users.

The cookies simply assess how you interact with our website – as an anonymous user (they data gathered does not identify you personally).

Also, this data is not shared with any third parties or used for any other purpose. The anonymised statistics could be shared with contractors working on communication projects under contractual agreement with the European Commission.

However, you are free to refuse these types of cookies – either via the cookie banner you will see on the first page you visit or at Europa Analytics

Analytics cookies are:

Name: _pk_id#

Services: Corporate web analytics service, based on Matomo open source software

Purpose: Recognises website visitors (anonymously – no personal information is collected on the user)

Cookie type and duration: First-party persistent cookie, 13 months

Name: _pk_ses#

Services: Corporate web analytics service, based on Matomo open source software

Purpose: Identifies the pages viewed by the same user during the same visit. (anonymously – no personal information is collected on the user)

Cookie type and duration: First-party persistent cookie, 30 minutes

Third-party cookies

Some of our pages display content hosted by contracted services on domains external to europa.eu, for example our contractor who helps operating the Europe Direct Contact Centre. The external hosting may need cookies in order to function.

Name of the cookie: PHPSESSIONID

Service: Europe Direct contact form

Purpose: Session info (random number), used for dealing with multi-language forms. No additional information stored

Cookie type and duration: Third-party session cookie, set by our contractor. Deleted after you quit your browser

Some of our pages display content from external providers, e.g. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

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

But if you do not view this content, no third-party cookies are installed on your device.

Third-party providers on Commission websites

These third-party services are outside of the control of the European Commission. Providers may, at any time, change their terms of service, purpose and use of cookies, etc.

How can you manage cookies?

You can manage/delete cookies as you wish - for details, see aboutcookies.org

Removing cookies from your device

You can delete all cookies that are already on your device by clearing the browsing history of your browser. This will remove all cookies from all websites you have visited.

Be aware though 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 being placed on your device, but you may then have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site/page. And some services and functionalities may not work properly at all (e.g. profile logging-in).

Managing our analytics cookies

You can manage your preferences concerning cookies from Europa Analytics on the dedicated Europa Analytics page.