European Union News - Justice

The European Commission published a Communication in which sets out the strategy and principles it intends to apply when using EU criminal law to strengthen the enforcement of European policies and protect the interests of the citizens. The Commission highlighted that it is essential to design a clear European Criminal Policy enabling the Union to define if, when and how to use criminal law to better enforce a policy.

The European Commission has approved a policy paper which sets goal of training 700,000 legal professionals in EU law by 2020. The objective is helping to build mutual trust between Europe's different legal systems and improve the implementation of European legislation. This will benefit people and businesses in Europe, who will be able to rely on swift decisions and proper respect for the rules.

According to the ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union, EU law can prevent transferred workers, even those employed by a public authority of a Member State and taken over by another public authority, from suffering a substantial reduction in salary by reason only of the transfer.

According to a recent survey published by the Commission shows that almost half of the European citizens considers the right to move and reside freely in the European Union is the most important citizens’ right. Furthermore the Commission has helped to resolve 90% of open free movement cases.

A team of Spanish researchers has developed a method that can determine the chemical composition of liquids and determining whether a suspicious device is explosive or not. With this method, police can declare a suspicious device safe or potentially explosive and judges can use conclusive scientific test results on the nature of dangerous liquids in court.

The European Commission has made available the results of the public consultation on a possible successor instrument to the EU programme for employment and social solidarity (Progress 2007-2013). The results reveal strong support for the continuation of Progress activities. This feed into a legislative proposal for a successor instrument which will be presented by the Commission in October 2011.

Commission starts legal procedure against nine countries which are not yet notified all national measures needed to fully implement the European Union Mediation Directive. This Directive entered into force on 21 May and it applies when two parties who are involved in a cross-border dispute voluntarily agree to settle their dispute using an impartial mediator. Now these nine countries have two months to respond.

New EU telecoms rules, requires operators and Internet service providers to inform, without undue delay, national authorities and their customers about breaches of personal data that they hold. Thus, the Commission wants to gather input based on existing practice and initial experience with the new telecoms rules and whether additional practical rules are needed to make sure that personal data breaches are notified in a consistent way across the EU.

According to the conclusions of the Advocate General, Verica Trstenjak, following to the case-law of the Court of Justice, the workers right to annual leave is inviolable even in cases of long-term illness. In addition, a limit of 18 months, on expiry of which entitlement to leave or to the allowance in lieu of leave is extinguished, is sufficient.

According to the new EU Regulation in matters related to maintenance obligation in cross-border situations, applicable from June 18th 2011, children and families across the European Union will benefit from speedier maintenance payments when families split up. Thanks to a new EU-wide system, absent parents will no longer be able to evade their obligations.

A new Eurobarometer survey on attitudes towards data protection and electronic identity released by the European Commission shows that three out of four Europeans accept that revealing personal data is part of everyday life, but they are also worried about how companies, including search engines and social networks, use their information.

Viviane Reding, EU Justice Commissioner, presented a Green Paper asking ten questions on how to strengthen mutual trust in the field of detention. The Green Paper kicks off a public consultation that it has as main goal to seek views on detention in the EU's area of justice, in order to explore more closely the links between detention issues and mutual trust in such area.