Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-23-Speech-1-079"
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"en.20020923.6.1-079"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as other speakers have emphasised, protection and support for victims is certainly one of the key challenges we face in establishing the area of freedom, security and justice. We passed an initial milestone in March 2001, when the Council adopted a framework decision on the standing of victims in criminal proceedings. Soon afterwards, the Commission presented its Green Paper on compensation to crime victims.
The aim of this document was to launch a wide consultation with the Member States and all the interested parties on the possible objectives of a Commission initiative in this area. Amongst the suggestions made, I shall mention, in particular, the drawing up of a minimum criterion for compensating victims within the Union and the application of this scheme to cross-border disputes. I am therefore extremely grateful to the European Parliament for tabling a resolution on the Commission Green Paper and I should like to thank Mrs Angelilli in particular for the excellent quality and the pertinence of her report. I am very pleased to be able to note, in the report, the support given to our objectives as well as a detailed and constructive analysis of the various aspects covered by the Green Paper. I shall not make any detailed comments about the various points of the motion you have debated, but I can assure you that these will help the Commission to define future measures. As you will have probably noted, the latest version of the Commission scoreboard on the area of freedom, security and justice already indicated that a follow-up will be given this autumn with a proposal for a directive on compensation to victims. The position that you are adopting today on the Green Paper will be, in this connection, an extremely valuable contribution to the creation of our proposal.
As far as the proposal for a directive on legal aid is concerned, the Green Paper published by the Commission in February 2002 led to a proposal for a directive being presented in January 2002 that seeks to establish minimum standards in the area of legal aid. As you know, this proposal provoked, and, indeed, continues to provoke, a great deal of discussion within the various Council bodies. In particular, the debates focused on the scope of the directive. The Commission hopes that the directive will apply to all civil and commercial disputes, but the Council decided that its scope should be limited to cross-border disputes. As a result, the text of the proposal was substantially changed, on this issue at least. The new text, which is still far from being final, was forwarded by the Council to Parliament for information. Earlier today, Mr Santini emphasised the situation and the institutional challenge that such an approach presents for Parliament, and that is why I fully understand that the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs hopes that it will be the original text of the Commission proposal that is submitted to the House for a decision.
I would therefore like to thank the rapporteurs, Mr Santini and Mrs Wallis, for the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, for the quality of their work. In addition, several changes suggested in the amendments were taken up in the text which is currently being debated in the Council. Above all, I must point out that Amendment No 6, which concerns the first paragraph of Article 1 of the proposal, is very clear on this point, since it goes as far as deleting the reference to cross-border disputes.
The Commission essentially remains of the opinion that the proposal for a directive must be applied to all civil disputes. This solution supports the extension of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Article 47 of which lays down that ‘legal aid shall be made available to those who lack sufficient resources insofar as such aid is necessary to ensure effective access to justice’. It is also part of our work to promote access to justice for all. Unfortunately, I must say that there is very little chance that the Council will change its mind on this matter. On the other hand, the debate continues on the definition of ‘cross-border impact’, which can be interpreted in either a broad or restricted manner. The Commission would like to support a broad interpretation so as to avoid undermining the principle of legality. The issue will be tackled at the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in October."@en1
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