Citizens 'need direct access to Euro court'

Individuals from across the European Union should be allowed to bypass national courts and challenge EU legislation directly before the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the continent's legal leaders resolved last week.

Former Bar Council chairman Lord Brennan QC - speaking on behalf of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of the European Union (CCBE) - told the European Bar Presidents conference in Vienna that Europe's citizens 'would never forgive' the EU's leaders and the lawyers who advise them if a single judicial system were not created which allowed easy access to Europe's highest court for legitimate actions.

The Gazette is the first publication ever to attend the conference, which is in its 31st year.

Delegates passed a resolution calling for increased access for individuals to the ECJ to be supported by the creation of an office of 'defender of the people', which would ensure compliance of EU legislation with the European Convention on Human Rights and/or the charter of fundamental rights.

The main plank of the resolution was the call for individuals and groups to have power to challenge EU legislation.

Currently, only the highest courts of member states or the European Commission can refer cases to the ECJ.

The resolution also said the ECJ should be duty-bound to apply the ECHR in its decisions.

Otherwise, suggested Lord Brennan, the ECJ process may breach article 6 of the convention (the right to a fair trial).

The resolution will be presented to the EU's special working party, headed by former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, which is drafting a new European convention.

The working party is scheduled to present its proposals to the EU's heads of government this June.

An existing draft convention includes provisions for the creation of a 'charter of fundamental rights'.

The joint CCBE/Vienna resolution calls for an obligation to give that charter 'legally binding effect, with adequate remedies for those of its rights which are justiciable'.

UK ministers in the convention-drafting process are Baroness Scotland from the Lord Chancellor's Department and former Europe minister Peter Hain, currently Secretary of State for Wales.

Leaders from all of the UK legal jurisdictions plus Ireland attended the Vienna conference.

The Law Society's European committee is currently producing a response - scheduled for publication at the end of this month - to the proposals for a European convention.

Alison Hook, the Society's head of international, said: 'What we have in Europe at the moment is an area of security.

What we need is to build in freedom and justice.

We need to ensure that individuals have access to justice through the ECJ.

That will require a massive investment in a proper justice system at a European level.'

Jonathan Ames in Vienna