To make this Commission website 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’re 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 Commission’s website, 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 don’t 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?
European Commission websites mostly use “first-party cookies”. These are cookies set and controlled by the 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)
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
| Name | Service | Purpose | Cookie type and duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| cck1 | Cookie consent kit | Stores your cookie preferences (so you won’t be asked again) | First-party persistent cookie, 6 months |
Technical cookies
| Name | Service | Purpose | Cookie type and duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| gisco-waf-prod-affinity | Geographic information system of the EC (GISCO) | used by Azure Gateway server | First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser |
| gisco-waf-prod-affinityCORS | Geographic information system of the EC (GISCO) | used by Azure Gateway server | First-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser |
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 (the 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 Commission.
| Name | Service | Purpose | Cookie type and duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| _pk_id# | Corporate web analytics service | Recognises website visitors (anonymously – no personal information is collected on the user). | First-party persistent cookie, 13 months |
| _pk_ses# | Corporate web analytics service |
Identifies the pages viewed by the same user during the same visit. (anonymously – no personal information is collected on the user). |
First-party persistent cookie, 30 minutes |
Third-party cookies
Some of our pages display content from external providers, e.g. YouTube.
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 provider YouTube on this Commission website
| Name | Service | Purpose | Cookie type and duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA | YouTube Video service | YouTube visitor privacy metadata cookie. | Third-party persistent cookie, 6 months |
| VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | YouTube Video service | Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website and tries to estimate the users' bandwidth on pages with integrated YouTube videos. | Third-party persistent cookie, 6 months |
| YSC | YouTube Video service | Registers a unique ID to keep statistics of what videos from YouTube the user has seen and preferences during a browsing session. | Third-party session cookie, deleted after you quit your browser |
These third-party services are outside of the control of the Commission. Providers may, at any time, change their terms of service, purpose and use of cookies, etc.
How can you manage cookies?
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).