Brussels, 30/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - There is wide support at the European Parliament for the European Commission's draft directive on granting free legal aid to people without the necessary resources to be able to take part in civil law cases, as defendant or , in Member States other than the one where they reside. The report by Giacomo Santini (Forza Italia), approved by 441 to 86 with 16 abstentions, only suggests a few amendments to provide more details about various articles of the draft directive published at the end of January. All civil law cases, including commercial law, employment law and consumer law, are covered by the draft directive, as are out-of-court settlement cases foreseen by law or by a judge in civil law issues. The Commission is proposing that legal aid includes actual aid from a lawyer and/or another person legally authorised to represent people in court to provide preliminary legal aid and represent the individual in court, along with exoneration or payment of legal costs. Legal aid (provided by the country where the case is to be held) should also cover additional costs directly connected with the cross-border nature of the case, such as translation and interpreting fees and travel costs. The Commission is suggesting establishing a standard form for requesting legal aid for cross-border civilian cases. Each Member States would nominate the bodies authorised to make and assess applications for aid. Assessment of requests should be rapid, and reasons given for rejecting applications.
The Commission is proposing that Member States apply this scheme by 1 January 2004, noting that nothing prevents a Member State, of course, from granting more generous legal aid than the proposed common base. Because of their own justice and home affairs systems, the proposed system will not cover Denmark, the UK or Ireland, but the three countries may opt in. As requested by the Tampere European Council, the Commission started working on the adoption of minimum rules for legal aid, unveiling a Green Paper in March 2000, followed by two meetings with experts in February 2001 and June 2001. The European Parliament's opinion is not binding