Liberal Democrat Member of the European
Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber
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Diana Wallis Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber |
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| Commission Proposal for an European Judicial Network (civil and commercial) 04/04/2001 |
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Today in this House there was the annual debate on the European Area of Freedom Justice and Security - oddly the theme of our citizens access to justice in civil and commercial matters was not mentioned.
Very strange, in an Internal Market where we actively encourage our citizens and enterprises to travel and conduct their commerce whether in person or using the Net. There is therfore a heavy responsiblity upon us to provide access to justice when things go wrong. This proposal states that it's aim is to create 'a European judicial area which will bring tangible benefits to every citizen'. I hope it will not dissapoint. It is a proposal on two levels. Firstly creating a network of judicial autorities and personnel to ease cross border procedures in civil and commercial matters. However it is the second level that interests me - to give information to to our citizens on how to pursue cross border litigation. We know this is difficult, only to be attempted with competent and specialised legal advice. Increasingly our citizens find themselves envolved in cross border problems, road traffic or other accidents, buying a property or time share; these are actual complex legal situations that we know occurr for our citizens. Whilst we are trying also to move to extrajudicial remedies, we must also ensure that judicial remedies are acessible. That is why my group's ammedment to secure a pilot programme of access to specialised legal advice should be central to this element of the network. A network of judicial personel is one thing but a network that really provides cross border acess to justice would be the best way to recognise the progress towards a real area of justice in europe for our citizens on the day of the annual debate on this subject. |
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