In 1991 the Central Library of the National Research Council, following a convention agreement with the Directorate General Information, Communication and Culture of the European Commission, has become Depository Library of the European Commission (DEP). In 2006, the Library Custodian, with a new convention agreement, became European Documentation Centre (EDC) and it became part of a network that includes 600 centres worldwide, including 366 in Europe and 50 in Italy in order to promote European dissemination. Under the agreement, arrives in the Library a copy of the printed and electronic publications, whether regular or monographs, the different EU institutions (Commission, Council, Parliament, Court of Justice, Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, the European Bank Investment, EUROSTAT) published by the Office for Official Publications of the European Union. The COE is located at the Room B of the Central Library "G. Marconi" where are made available to the user several European databases and all publications, whether regular or monographs, on open shelves. There are also terminals to access the site of the European Union and make literature searches. The EDC is one of the points of service of the EU information networks.

Its main purposes are:

• promote information, study and acculturation on the activities and values of the European Union;
• contribute, in order to increase transparency, to raise awareness of EU policies in all European citizens (even outside the world of University and research) and businesses;
• support universities and research centres in promoting and developing the teaching and research on European integration;
• offer to students, academics, citizens from the world of work and the professions integrated services for information and documentation on the activities of the European Union, by consulting databases and different kinds of documentation;
• inform, in synergy with other Commission networks, on EU policies;
• retain documentation providing at its sorting, cataloguing, indexing and collocation;
• become a key point of information about the institution and policies of the European Union within the host institution.