The Europa Web Publishing Platform (EWPP) is the European Commission’s corporate solution for publishing content online, based on Drupal.
Purpose
The Europa Web Publishing Platform (EWPP) was built by the digital transformation programme with a view to making the European Commission’s web presence more coherent, relevant and cost-effective:
Coherent: the platform follows the Europa Web Guide rules and offers ready-to-use websites following the EC/EU guidelines: corporate identity, security and access management, content management workflows, content sharing, integration in our web landscape.
Relevant: the platform offers the most popular functionalities and features used by DGs to ensure harmonisation and reduce complexity.
Cost-effective: wherever possible, the platform integrates and re-uses existing EC corporate services in order to avoid duplication of content, systems and services.
Rules
The EWPP offers the most commonly needed features for European Commission websites. The obligation to use the EWPP depends on website categories as well as specific features of the websites. For more details about website categories, see the European Commission websites section of the Europa Web Guide.
In the case of:
- core and standardised websites: owners are expected to use the Europa Web Publishing platform (EWPP). In general, the use of the EWPP is mandatory for new projects.
- harmonised websites: owners are also welcome to explore whether the EWPP can meet their needs. EWPP offers many functionalities common to most DGs and libraries with all visual elements for EC branded websites, but does not include collaborative features like blogs or forums for instance. If the EWPP does not meet your needs, please use additional distributions made available by DGs COMM and DIGIT.
For content-heavy websites (excluding Web information systems): the use of the EWPP is generally recommended.
The Europa Web publishing platform Extended
The Extended solution targets publishing sites falling in the harmonised site category, that are non transactional and require customisation. Customisation can mean a specific look and feel or site specific features.
Procedure
New sites or major updates (e.g. revamping a site or changing the technical platform) must first be approved by DG COMM in accordance with the web request procedures.
Once sent, your request will follow the onboarding process.
The EWPP is owned by DG COMM (business owner), developed by DIGIT (service provider), operated as centrally-managed software-as-a-service and supported by DG COMM (1st line support) and DIGIT. DG COMM provides training and support for onboarding. Additional services (Business Analysis, content rationalization, data migration etc.) may be available on request.
New feature development
Site owners can make use of any feature included in the platform but cannot directly add or modify code themselves.
Requests for new features and improvements may be sent to DG COMM at any time via COMM Europa Management. Feature requests are reviewed by the Change Control Board (DG COMM) and Technical Board (DG DIGIT) before being added to the platform roadmap. Where authorized by the Change Control Board, site owners with the necessary resources can contribute to implementing features.
Costs related to the use of the platform
An annual service fee per website is charged for use of the Europa Web Publishing Platform and related services.
Details of the costs and services associated with each website are laid down in a Memorandum of Understanding between the three parties concerned:
- The DG owning the website (service requestor)
- DG COMM (business owner of the Europa Web Publishing Platform)
- DG DIGIT (service provider).
For more details, please see the cost model for the hosting services and the service level agreement.
Related Links
Read more on the Europa Web Publishing Platform on the EWPP wiki.
Check existing websites on the EWPP sites showcase page.
Training
DG COMM provides training for EWPP:
- basic training for everyone new to the EWPP and/or D8
- advanced training for the site owners who are already using EWPP and have websites in pre(production).
Users can sign up for training via EULearn.
Contact and support
Need further assistance on this topic? Please contact the team in charge of Europa Domain Management (EU Login required).