Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-09-Speech-1-213"
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"en.20090309.24.1-213"2
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"Madam President, at this late hour on a Monday the Commission will probably have other things on its mind more worrying than this report. To be brief, what we are doing is simply responding to a report by the Commission, which is a report on the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1206/2001 of 28 May 2001 on cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters.
This sphere is, in fact, not a Community one, but an intergovernmental one, in which the Council – through the regulation – has tried to encourage cooperation between the courts. I believe, however, that there has been a certain lack of rigour on the European Union’s part in its attempts to achieve this. That is to say, certain measures have been taken, such as the formulation of practical ideas, the use of electronic media, and so on, but I recognise that it is quite difficult for the Commission to act.
I do not know what the Commission has achieved or what it hopes to achieve, but it seems to me quite difficult to achieve anything because of the huge difficulties involved in this form of intergovernmental cooperation. What we are asking is for the judicial authorities to collaborate, but we are talking about 27 countries, judicial authorities that use 22 different languages, with legal systems that have significant differences between them, and we are trying to achieve results.
The Commission has found that the results are not good, that there is a huge delay in the implementation of these cooperation mechanisms and, therefore, that we do not have the resources to achieve this. The ideal solution would be to use physical means. For example, what could the Commission do to equip courts, particularly those at a lower level, with technological facilities such as videoconferencing systems? Videoconferencing might be an idea that seems out of reach in many small courts within the European Union, but it appears to be the only way of achieving this.
I think the European Union ought to make use of institutions that already exist, and specifically the European Judicial Network. We should strengthen this institution so that the judges themselves, using their cooperation systems, can develop this type of communication.
On the other hand, the whole area of training judges is vital. This, too, is something that the Commission cannot do by itself. What the Commission can do, however, is to foster the development of courses of this type, providing training in Community law and in the knowledge of the various legal systems.
Aside from this, there is another huge difficulty, which is the problem of languages: how can a Spanish judge, for instance, communicate with a Finnish judge, when the two languages are so different? It cannot be argued that the judges, as well as having to be experts in their own law, which is fairly complex in itself, should be obliged to have knowledge of this kind.
What can we do from the practical point of view to help the judges with regard to interpreting and translation? What could we do to help them to achieve this? In drawing up this report, I am not setting out to take a severe or harsh approach towards the Commission. I think the task is quite a difficult one. What I would like to know, taking advantage of the fact that we have here a Commissioner who is interested in this subject, is what the Commission thinks can be done to give greater rigour to this 2001 regulation, which was a little vague, a little too much based on voluntary action; I do not know whether, from the practical point of view, it can produce any results or whether it will be possible to make progress with it."@en1
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