Stimulating European competitiveness and growth through the practice of law. This was the objective for representatives of the Member States, the European Parliament, the business community, legal professionals, trade unions and consumer associations – “a wide range of players”, according to Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath, who called them together on Thursday 27 March for “open and informal discussions”.
This high-level forum, the first of a series of four meetings to be held over the next few months and culminating in conclusions at the end of the year, was organised jointly with the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union opportunity to stimulate European debate that should lead to a shared vision of the future of civil law, company law and the digitalisation of justice, while also responding to the guidelines set out in the ‘Draghi’ and ‘Letta’ reports.
According to Michael McGrath, “common, simple, modern rules (...) can help to substantially reduce the administrative and legal costs for businesses”.
These rules need to be clarified, both for the benefit of companies engaged in cross-border trade with the European Union and for the proper functioning of the internal market, the European Commissioner emphasised.
A reliable, independent and efficient system has also been identified as a vector for investment, with the proper functioning of the justice system and the Rule of law seen as guarantees of a credible environment for businesses.
“The aim is to create a favourable legal environment in which businesses can grow, consumers feel protected, and all citizens have access to justice and good justice at that”, explained Poland’s Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar.
In the same vein, the European Commissioner intends to work on company law and corporate governance, as well as on the “28th regime”.
Imagined as belonging to a fictitious 28th State in order to consider the harmonisation of rules independently of the regime of one of the EU27, this “28th regime” is supported by the European Commission, as well as by the aforementioned reports, in order to make it possible to draw up a European code of business law and, consequently, to overcome the legal and contractual disparities that would constitute so many obstacles to the growth of the market.
Digitalisation. In addition, while the recent regulation on the digitalisation of justice (see EUROPE 13311/20) has established itself as a new legal framework that favours “digital communication channels for the purposes of judicial cooperation”, allowing in particular the use of videoconferencing for cross-border hearings, Michael McGrath invited the stakeholders to “look beyond” and reflect on the possibilities of “making justice more efficient and reducing its costs”.
“It is in this spirit that I also invite you to reflect on the enormous potential that artificial intelligence will offer us”, he declared at the start of the meeting, laying the foundations for the forthcoming discussions, which are due to continue in June. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)