Brussels, 14/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has set a goal of having half of all legal practitioners in the European Union - judges, prosecutors, lawyers and other legal practitioners - some 700,000 legal professionals, trained in EU law by 2020, according to a policy paper adopted on Tuesday 13 September. The Commission has also set a target of having at least one week's training in EU law for all legal practitioners during their careers.
“As European law is part of everyday life, citizens and businesses want to know that they can count on a knowledgeable and well-trained judiciary across the Union enabling them to exercise their rights and get justice. But judges and lawyers delivering such justice need to know the rules to be able to apply them effectively”, said EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. She added: “This will help cement our efforts to create an EU-wide area of justice, improving the way the internal market operates”.
To achieve its objectives, the Commission has called on national governments, councils for the judiciary, professional bodies and judicial training institutions both at EU and national levels to commit to integrating EU law into their training programmes and to increasing the number of courses and participants. The Commission itself intends to facilitate access to EU funding to support high-quality training projects, including e-learning. Under the EU's new multi-annual financial framework, the Commission has proposed to make European judicial training a major priority, with the aim of training more than 20,000 legal practitioners a year by 2020.
The Commission proposes, too: - to launch a two-week exchange programme for new judges and prosecutors from 2014 onwards; - to support training through the European e-Justice Portal, the EU's one-stop shop for laws and access to justice in all EU countries; - to encourage public-private partnerships to develop innovative training solutions.
The Commission will build on the strengths of all existing training providers, including the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), the Academy of European Law (ERA) and the European-level legal professional organisations: the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ), the Association of the Councils of State and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the EU, the Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Judicial Courts of the EU, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the Council of Notaries of the EU (CNUE), International Union of Judicial Officers (UIHJ) and the European Legal Interpreters and Translators Association (EULITA).
European legal training covers: - EU legislation, including substantive and procedural law, together with the corresponding case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union; - knowledge of national judicial systems. These strands may be supported by linguistic training. The European judicial training scheme includes two complementary components: judicial training activities in general, whether organised at local, national or European level, and cross-border exchanges.
Legal Basis. Judicial training is primarily the responsibility of member states. The Lisbon Treaty (Articles 81.2.h and 82.1.c of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union) calls on the EU to “support the training of the judiciary and of judicial staff” in both civil and criminal matters. (L.C./transl.rt)