European Commission boosts judicial training to foster mutual trust
27 Jun 2014 10:55 AM
As the European Council meets
this week to agree – amongst other things – on the future strategic
priorities in the area of justice, the European Commission is already working
to deliver on one of the priorities: strengthening mutual trust in each
other's justice systems. The European Commission is hosting a European
Judicial training workshop today and tomorrow to boost the training of legal
practitioners. Over 140 judicial trainers from EU Member
States will
share good practices, exchange ideas and find new partners to develop further
training. The two-day workshop will bring the EU one step closer in
achieving its goal of having 50 % of all legal practitioners
(corresponding to a total of 700.000) trained in EU law by 2020 (IP/11/1021),
thus improving
the number and quality of training activities in EU law and in the legal
systems of the Member States. The workshop will also be streamed live.
"Mutual trust is the
bedrock upon which EU justice policy is built, and high-quality training of
legal practitioners is paramount in fostering this trust. As heads of state and
government are meeting today and tomorrow to define the future strategic
priorities for Europe's justice area, my call to leaders is to put mutual
trust high on the future justice
agenda," said Vice-President Viviane Reding, the
EU's Justice Commissioner. "Trust is not made by
decree. It grows with knowledge. To
date, we have already succeeded in training over 130.000 legal practitioners in
EU law and this figure will continue to rise as 35% of the new EU Justice
financial programme will be dedicated to judicial training. This is the best
investment Europe can make to ensure the EU's single market and our area of
justice deliver the most for citizens and businesses
alike."
Judicial training is on the rise
(see Annex): More than 130 000 legal practitioners received training in EU
law in 2011 and 2012: we are on the way to hit the 2020 target, but for that
more efforts are needed. Training must be taken a step further in numbers,
quality and variety of professions receiving training. Today's workshop is
a step in this direction.
Workshop "Building upon
good practices in European judicial training"
A pilot project that the
European Commission implemented upon a proposal of the European Parliament
gathered best practices for organising, implementing and evaluating training
for legal practitioners on EU law from across Europe. The results of these good
practices for judges and prosecutors, and the state of play of training in EU
law for lawyers and court staff will be presented at the workshop – in
the following areas:
-
training needs
assessment;
-
supporting the
trainers;
-
methods of active
participation;
-
tackling linguistic barriers in
training;
-
e-learning;
-
organising decentralised
training activities;
-
cross-border cooperation between
training providers;
-
evaluation of training
activities.
The workshop will also give an
overview of EU-funding possibilities to help training providers introduce new
techniques (generally for projects involving cross-border cooperation). The
new Justice programme reserves more than
a third of its funds for training and plans a call for action grants
exclusively for training projects in the second half of 2014.
The European e-Justice
Portal's training section
The European e-Justice
Portal now features a brand new European judicial training section to give
access to ready-to-use training material on European law. This material is
designed for both legal professionals wishing to expand their knowledge and
understanding independently, and for trainers of legal professionals wishing to
organise training sessions on EU law. The Portal also hosts factsheets on good
judicial training practices that can inspire training providers of all legal
professions to improve their training offer.
Background
There are around 1.4 million
legal practitioners in the EU, including judges, prosecutors, lawyers,
notaries, bailiffs and court staff. The Commission's 2011 Communication on European Judicial
Training set an ambitious target
of training 700 000 legal practitioners (half the EU total) in European
judicial training by 2020. It also asked for high quality legal training
(practice orientated and using modern learning methods).
Such training is important in
ensuring legal practitioners are well equipped to implement EU law and in
fostering a sense of a common European judicial culture based on mutual trust.
Meeting this challenging goal requires commitment from all
stakeholders: national governments, Councils for the judiciary, national
and European judicial training institutions, legal professions at national and
European level. In March the Commission presented its vision on the future
justice agenda (IP/14/233) which should focus on three main
challenges: trust, mobility and growth.
The Commission is building on
the strengths of all existing training providers, including the European
Judicial Training Network (EJTN) and the Academy of European Law (ERA), and on 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 (ACA-Europe), 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), the International Union of Judicial Officers (UIHJ) and the European
Legal Interpreters and Translators Association (EULITA).
For more
information:
Workshop "Building upon good practices in European
judicial training", 26-27 June, Brussels
The European e-Justice Portal's training
section
European judicial training
Homepage of Viviane
Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission and EU Justice
Commissioner
Follow the Vice-President on
Twitter: @VivianeRedingEU
Follow EU Justice on
Twitter: @EU_Justice
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