Speech by Minister Jiří Pospíšil it the European Parliament
Dear Mr. Chairman, honourable Members of the European Parliament, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is a great honour for me to be able to speak before you today as the Minister of Justice of the country holding the Presidency and to present its priorities in the area of justice for the coming six months. Since we have not had the opportunity to welcome the LIBE Committee in the Czech Republic, I consider this event as an excellent opportunity for discussing agendas and tasks on which we will work together. I believe that together, we will manage to prepare legislation of such quality that it will, in effect, contribute to make the European justice system more efficient, thereby improving the lives of all European citizens.
I am very well aware of the irreplaceable role of the European Parliament among other European institutions and – as far as the justice agenda is concerned – especially of the role of the LIBE and JURI committees. The active involvement of the LIBE committee and your valuable observations are essential for achieving optimum solutions in our often very complicated agendas. Therefore, as I dare hope, our cooperation in the next six months will be close and fruitful.
Allow me to briefly present to you the Czech Presidency’s agenda in the area of justice, which can be summed up in two basic phrases: More efficient judicial proceedings and greater legal certainty for citizens. I will first mention those proposals which concern your committee in particular.
We are convinced that in a Europe without barriers, citizens’ legal certainty must be enhanced, which means ensuring that their legal matters follow clear and foreseeable legal rules. Efficient criminal justice should, in our opinion, primarily not lead to proceedings concerning the same case in various countries, which can indeed happen at the moment. This is the ‛conflict of jurisdictions’ in criminal proceedings, for the prevention and resolution of which the Czech Republic, together with Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland and Sweden, has drafted a proposal for a Council Framework Decision. The aim of that proposed framework decision is to create a mechanism through which the relevant national authorities of two or more EU Member States will exchange information about pending criminal proceedings in cases where a conflict of jurisdictions may arise. In cases where a conflict of jurisdictions has already occurred, the framework decision should set rules for a consultation procedure. On the basis of a joint agreement of the countries concerned, the most suitable country would be selected and the criminal proceedings would be concentrated there. This norm is therefore expected to lessen the burden both for the court system and for the criminal offender concerned by the criminal proceedings. I firmly believe that we will soon receive a report from the European Parliament concerning this proposal for a Framework Decision.
We are convinced that justice in Europe will be faster, more transparent and more accessible for citizens if advantage is taken of the opportunities offered by e-Justice. We will strongly support greater use of modern technologies throughout the European judicial system. In particular, I can mention for example our efforts to make videoconferencing more widespread in cross-border court proceedings, and to make a maximum of information concerning justice available on the European justice portal. We understand that the initial investment, i.e. the cost of acquisition of modern technologies is significant, and this is why we are also in favour of greater opportunities for using Community programmes to finance this area. A summary of responses to the questionnaire sent out within the working group on e-Justice has shown that most Member States already have the technical equipment required for videoconferences, and most technical difficulties hindering its joint use in cross-border cases in the European judicial area can be overcome relatively easily. I am convinced that videoconferences are a useful tool which can contribute to speeding up cross-border proceedings and to reducing their costs both in civil and criminal matters. They can be used for more sensitive examinations of witnesses and experts, and they can also be used in remote interpretation. After all, e-Justice as a whole has ultimately a positive impact on the reduction of the costs and overall efficiency of justice in the long term.
In short, the Czech Presidency should contribute to European citizens being able to find out in advance where they may go to court or be brought before court, and under what rules, whether in a civil or criminal matter. At the same time, such information should be clear and quick to obtain, and any cross-border proceedings should be as little burdensome as possible.
With regard to other agendas of the Czech Presidency, I cannot fail to mention that in late March / early April of this year, the European Commission is expected to present an amendment to the Council Framework Decision on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. The main purpose of the amendment is to remedy the shortcomings arising from the present practice and to respond to current developments, for example in the field of information technologies which are often abused as a means of committing a crime. The proposal will aim, above all, to achieve the standards set out by the Council of Europe Convention on Sexual Exploitation known as the Lanzarote Convention , which is considered very progressive. Given that the protection of children is an important priority of the Czech Presidency, we are planning to work intensively on the proposal.
We also expect the European Commission to present a revised proposal for the Council Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA on combating trafficking in human beings which should also remedy deficiencies in the existing regulation on EU level and respond to current developments. The primary purpose of this amendment will be to achieve the standard set out by the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings of 16 May 2005 and by the Palermo Protocol (to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the United National Convention against Transnational Organised Crime) and, as the case may be, to strengthen and develop this standard even further, should the EU Member States reach an agreement on this issue . For the Czech Republic, this is an important agenda and in its position as the country holding the Presidency, it will strive to contribute to the achievement of a generally acceptable compromise.
The Czech Presidency is prepared to duly discuss and adopt the remaining evaluation reports of the fourth round of the mutual evaluations concerning the practical application of the European Arrest Warrant and the surrender procedures between the Member States as well as the final report on this issue which should complete the entire evaluation process within the scope of activity of the Council.
In general, the Czech Republic considers the evaluation of the European Union’s instruments to be a suitable and useful tool for obtaining practical information about the application of European legal regulations in practice. Consequently, in order to facilitate the broadest possible discussion on the topic, the Czech Presidency included the issue of the principle of mutual recognition in criminal matters and the conditions and potential limits on its use on the agenda of the informal Council held in Prague on 15 and 16 January, where a lively and inspiring discussion on this topic took place.
We firmly believe that in April 2009 we will receive the European Parliament’s opinion on the revised proposal for a Council Framework Decision concerning the European Supervision Order in pre-trial procedures among European Union Member States so that the Member States can start applying it in practice as soon as possible after it is adopted.
In the next few days, debates will be initiated on two parallel Commission proposals for creating a mechanism that would allow the Member States to enter, in specific cases, into independent contractual relations with third countries even in areas of exclusive competence of the EU. For a number of Member States, this is a very much needed initiative since they have so far cooperated with other countries on the basis of bilateral agreements. This should also resolve those thorny problems when a Member State has already negotiated the text of a bilateral agreement agreed with a third country but cannot sign it or ratify it due to the lack of powers.
In the near future, the European Commission should also submit a proposal for a Council Resolution concerning the signing and conclusion of the Hague Protocol on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations. The aim of the Czech Presidency is to bring debates on this proposal to a conclusion and to sign the Protocol on behalf of the EU. We would appreciate it if the European Parliament could manage to discuss the proposal for the conclusion of the Protocol before the end of this term.
During the Czech Presidency, we also expect the European Commission to take a stand on the request of certain Member States for the submission of a proposal for enhanced cooperation with respect to the Rome III Regulation. It is needless to say that I am aware that the European Parliament would wish for greater progress in this matter. The Czech Presidency has decided to contribute to the clarification of the opinion of individual Member States on this issue and tabled the issue concerning the future of family law at our informal Council on 16 January 2009, where a lively discussion took place on the topic. Presently, as I have already said, we are awaiting the decision of the European Commission. Should it decide to submit its proposal, we are prepared to participate in the discussion.
Further legislative as well as non-legislative tasks are planned in the sphere of civil justice, which, however, falls mostly outside the scope of work of your Committee. I do not want to overwhelm you with an extensive list of these tasks. I am convinced that what I have already said will provide you with sufficient insight to understand that the plan of the Czech Presidency is, in my opinion, ambitious yet entirely realistic.
I would like to assure you that we did not underestimate the preparations for our Presidency. This is the very first Presidency for the Czech Republic and we will work on our tasks with maximum commitment. We do not assume that the next six months will be easy; we do, however, hope that our satisfaction with our collective work will be that much greater in July 2009. In order that there may be a reason for satisfaction for all European Union Member States and, above all, all of its citizens, it will be necessary for us to be able to find a common language in decisive moments together with you, the European Parliament. I believe that finding ways to facilitate such a cooperation will not be difficult, since I firmly believe that we are pursuing the same interest, the same goal.
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to thank you for your attention and express my thanks for having been given the opportunity to present the agenda of the Czech Presidency. I look forward to our future cooperation.
Last update: 16.8.2011 15:51
