Website outages and upgrades

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) makes upgrades to this website from time to time, to improve user experience. During these upgrades, the website is unavailable for a short period of time, outside of EMA working hours. This page lists when we are planning the next outage and the main improvements made.

Updated 30/04/2025:
Added summary of 29/04/2025 release

Planned interruptions

 

Date	Time	Availability
27/05/2025	08:00-09:00 CEST	Website intermittently unavailable
24/06/2025	08:00-09:00 CEST	Website intermittently unavailable
29/07/2025	08:00-09:00 CEST	Website intermittently unavailable
26/08/2025	08:00-09:00 CEST	Website intermittently unavailable
15/09/2025	TBC	Website intermittently unavailable
30/09/2025	08:00-09:00 CEST	Website intermittently unavailable
28/10/2025	08:00-09:00 CEST	Website intermittently unavailable
25/11/2025	08:00-09:00 CET	Website intermittently unavailable

During these times, EMA’s corporate website may be intermittently unavailable or not work optimally. When the website is unavailable, a holding page displays EMA’s contact details, including the emergency number for reporting a potentially serious problem with a centrally authorised medicine and the number for notifying EMA of suspected quality defects or product recalls.

EMA advises users not to plan complex or critical work using EMA's corporate website at these times.

Release notes

• 29/04/2025:
  • Implemented integration with the EU Funding and Tenders Portal on the procurement page, see section “Ongoing tenders published on the Funding and Tenders Portal”
  • Enhanced the usability of sitewide search by improving search results when query contains special characters
  • Fixed a bug on veterinary referral pages that displayed “CHMP” instead of “CVMP” in the timeline image (example veterinary referral page)
  • Fixed a bug on event pages that displayed an alert message with the event’s original time even when viewed in the original time zone (Amsterdam time)
  • Fixed a bug in in-page navigation (Page contents) on mobile that prevented section headers from being fully visible when selecting
  • Various accessibility improvements to support people using assistive software:
    • Improved the understandability of page structure by adapting the code of the landmarks across the site
    • Improved the understandability of error messages on the “Send a question to EMA” page by adapting the aria labels
    • Improved the usability of page rating element by adapting the order of read-out elements
    • Improved the use of the EMA logo in the website header to navigate to the website's home page by changing the alt text to "European Medicines Agency's logo Go to homepage" which means this information is read out by screen readers
    • Improved the accessibility of the page rating element by amending the style of rating stars and error message
  • Various front-end style fixes
  • Various back-end bug fixes and improvements
• 25/03/2025:
  • Implemented page rating feature at the bottom of pages to gather qualitative and quantitative feedback from our stakeholders in order to further improve this website
  • Improved the usability of medicine content by implementing links to related post-authorisation studies from medicine pages, e.g. Adakveo
  • Improved the usability of direct animal healthcare professional communications by clarifying wording in page title and content badges
  • Fixed bug on Find medicine page which prevented suggestions coming up when medicine name is typed in the search field
  • Fixed error on events page which prevented selection of date range
  • Various back-end bug fixes and improvements
• 27/02/2025:
  • Improved the security of the 'Send a question' form by implementing a CAPTCHA
  • Improved the usability of search suggestions to specific pages or documents by introducing icons indicating the type of content suggested, e.g. document, page, event, etc.
  • Amended label of herbal products in search filters
  • Improved the usability of medicine pages by implementing ‘Expand section’ and ‘Collapse section’ buttons in the Assessment history section
  • Improved the usability of document search filters by removing faulty filter for ‘Consultation dates’
  • Fixed issue with the display of the badges for ‘Member’ or ‘Alternate’ on committee members’ pages, e.g. CHMP members
  • Various back-end bug fixes and accessibility improvements
• 28/01/2025:
  • Added a link to EMA’s new verified Bluesky account to the website footer and the share feature on all pages
  • Removed the link to EMA’s account on X from the website footer and the share feature on all pages as EMA has stopped using X for the time being
  • Removed the unnecessary expand all / collapse all buttons in the overview section of medicine pages
  • Fixed a bug in the date range of ‘This week’ and ‘Last week’ filters on the news listing page: start date is Monday, end date is Sunday
  • Implemented expand section / collapse section buttons on the Open consultations page
  • Amended text on primary badge on post-authorisation procedures for medicines pages to ‘Post-authorisation’ (previously ‘Medicine post-authorisation’)
  • Various front-end style fixes: correction of image blurriness, removing underlines from links in page contents or lists, adjustment of font sizes and colour of links across the website, adjustment of vertical spacing in search results
  • Various back-end bug fixes and improvements
• 26/11/2024:
  • Improved the usability of information about medicine shortages by providing this information in web content format instead of PDF format
  • Improved the usability of the news listing by moving date field quick pickers (like ‘This week’ or ‘ This month’) immediately below the date selection field
  • Improved the usability of breadcrumbs of various medicine related content pages by including their full page titles in the last node of the breadcrumb
  • Implemented a new back-end cache process for documents to ensure users do not see a cached version of a document when new version of that document is published
  • Fixed a bug in event listing relating to date quick filters
  • Fixed a bug in medicine data download relating to duplicate entries
  • Fixed a bug in news content relating to links to relevant referral content pages
  • Various back-end bug fixes and accessibility improvements
• 29/10/2024:
  • Updated cookie consent banner text with a clearer distinction between essential and non-essential cookies
  • Improved the usability of expandable content by implementing expand/collapse buttons
  • Improved the usability for mobile device users by implementing in-page navigation
  • Improved the usability of event pages by displaying event times in users’ local time zone
  • Various back-end bug fixes and accessibility improvements
• 03/10/2024:
  • Improved the usability of sitewide search by automatically displaying documents in search results without the need to select ‘include documents’
  • Improved the usability of upcoming/past events by enabling quick filters for this week/this month and last week/last month
  • Improved the usability of news by enabling quick filters for this week/month and last week/month
  • Fixed a bug in the medicine download data file relating to the display of the pharmacotherapeutic group
  • Fixed a bug in What’s New RSS feed to include periodic safety update report single assessments (PSUSAs)
  • Various front-end style fixes
  • Various back-end bug fixes and improvements
• 27/08/2024:
  • Added event date week and month quick filters to sitewide search
  • Improved the accessibility (keyboard operability) of the ‘Add to calendar’ event page feature
  • Fixed bug in document metadata related to end of consultation period
  • Various back-end bug fixes and improvements
• 14/08/2024:
  • Restored automatically generated daily updated tables with detailed data on medicines on the 'Download medicine data' page
• 30/07/2024:
  • Improved the display of medicine pages by adding a visual representation of the authorisation timeline
  • Improved the preview of website pages shared on social media platforms
  • Improved the usability and shareability of content by introducing an ‘Add to calendar’ feature on all event pages
  • Fixed bug in upcoming/past events that affected selected filters when navigating between ‘Upcoming events’ and ‘Past events’
  • Improved the usability of upcoming/past events by enabling multiple selection of responsible bodies
  • Fixed bug in sitewide search that resulted in an error when selecting ‘Include documents’ and ‘Open consultations’
  • Fixed bug for the RSS feeds for withdrawn applications and new medicines (human and veterinary)
  • Various back-end bug fixes and improvements
• 03/07/2024:
  • Bug fixed in medicine search
• 25/06/2024:
  • Improved the display of medicine status search filters for withdrawn applications
  • Medicine search improved by implementation of a spinning loader indicator to provide the user feedback that the browser is processing the request
  • Sitewide search improved by fixing bugs affecting date filters
  • Bug fixed on medicine pages which displayed special characters in INNs incorrectly
  • Bug fixed related to sharing content on LinkedIn and Facebook
  • Various back-end bug fixes and improvements
• 28/05/2024:
  • Back-to-top button implemented on all pages longer than 4 screens on desktop and ½ screen on mobile
  • Enhanced social share feature implemented
  • Fixed issues with keyword search in upcoming/past events
  • Various back-end bug fixes and improvements
• 15/04/2024:
  • Fixed issue with multi-day all-day events displaying on the homepage and in the events listing page
  • Fixed issue with “First published” date displaying also as the “Last updated” date for documents that have not been updated after initial publication
  • Improved usability of document display by adding the publication and update dates of each available translation separately
  • Improved usability of veterinary referrals by grouping documents by stage at publishing e.g. at under evaluation or final decision stage
  • Various back-end bug fixes and improvements
• 20/03/2024:
  • Improved usability and accessibility of 'Page contents' links by including the name of the bookmark in the URL
  • Fixed issue with related content sections not showing in the 'Page contents' of Opinions on medicines for use outside EU and Paediatric investigation plans
  • Improved usability of Opinions on medicines for use outside EU by moving the ‘Product information’ section up on the page and by ensuring the document ’Procedural steps taken and scientific information after opinion’ always displays first under ‘Assessment history’
  • Various back-end bug fixes and improvements
• 06/03/2024:
  • Back-end improvement to the search interface of authenticity verification for electronic certificates
• 29/02/2024:
  • Pause button added to the homepage carousel
  • Search improved by:
    • implementation of a spinning loader indicator to provide the user feedback that the browser is processing the request
    • ability to select more than one item from a search filter (search results will display results with either criteria, e.g. if A and B are selected from one single filter, results will include content that is either for A or B)
  • Search results display improved by:
    • default order set to newest first
    • implementation of a message with a link to the search tips page
    • bug fixed affecting the display of metadata related to content
  • Breadcrumbs on event pages updated to include a link to the events listing
  • Display of various special characters fixed
  • Deactivated glossary terms from document titles
  • Bugs fixed on the European experts page which displayed the top of the page when pagination or search within the list was used lower down on the page; search for names with special characters improved
• 31/01/2024:
  • Fixed issue with missing URL redirections from the previous version of the website, in particular for medicine content and documents (excluding URLs of documents in languages other than English)
• 11/01/2024:
  • Search results relevance improved, by increasing the amount of content on each web page indexed by sitewide search
  • Bug fixed in sitewide search (error message displayed when searching for documents with titles longer than 128 characters)
  • Searching and filtering enabled in sitewide search for:
    • medicines by type (biosimilar, generic, etc.), opinion status, maximum residue limits
    • referrals by therapeutic area
    • shortages by status
    • direct healthcare professional communications (DHPCs) by active substance, international non-proprietary name (INN) and common name
    • paediatric investigation plans (PIPs) by active substance, INN, common name and therapeutic area
    • periodic safety update report single assessments (PSUSAs) by regulatory outcome and active substance/INN
  • Usability improved of controlled vocabulary filter for therapeutic area in the sitewide search, by listing terms in alphabetic order
  • Bug fixed that prevented users from seeing upcoming events and past events
  • Language identifiers for Icelandic (íslenska) and Lithuanian (lietuvių kalba) in document lists corrected
• 05/12/2023:
  • New version of the website with increased security
  • All content migrated from previous version of the website
  • Refreshed look and feel, enhancing use of visual products
  • Simplified navigation via a 'breadcrumbs' feature showing users where they are on the website
  • Simplified medicines search via either medicine name or active substance
  • Revamped 'What's new page', enabling users to locate content via simple filters and new sorting options