Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am delighted
to be with you today to open the conference on European Citizenship and
Justice. I would like to thank the Luxembourg Presidency for organising
this conference. It is a very timely moment to take stock of what the
status of EU citizenship has already achieved for Europeans and to
exchange ideas on how to further develop EU citizenship and justice
policies in the years ahead.
And what better place than the
European Court of Justice to hold our debates given its pioneering role
in promoting EU citizenship!...
In a series of landmark judgments,
the Court has made EU citizenship the fundamental status of all citizens
in EU Member States. It has given more substance to the concept of EU
citizenship, and has promoted the rights attached to this status.
For
its part, the Commission wants to translate (abstract) rights, into
concrete benefits for citizens in their daily lives. And to simplify
citizens’ lives by removing obstacles they might still face when
exercising their EU rights.
Take freedom of movement for example.
An increasing number of EU citizens travel, work, study, do business, or
retire in another Member State. This is a right that needs to be
safeguarded and promoted. It is the right Europeans cherish the most and
associate most closely with EU citizenship.
It brings numerous
personal and economic benefits brings. Citizens benefit fully from the
opportunities of the Single Market to travel, study, work, or do
business in another EU country.
Let me also stress that EU law
includes robust safeguards Member States can use to protect their public
finances against any abuse of our free movement rights. The Court has
confirmed this in a series of important judgments.
Citizens want
to enjoy freedom of movement and they also want to feel protected,
especially when problems arise. The Commission will continue to develop a
European area of justice based on mutual trust, in order to help
citizens tackle legal difficulties they may face, such as cross-border
divorces, child custody or child abduction. In this mandate, we aim to
review some of the rules in this area, including for instance the
Brussels IIa Regulation on matrimonial and parental responsibility
matters.
In the field of criminal justice, the Commission has sought to protect victims of crimes and promote fair trials for defendants.
Victims
of crimes often feel vulnerable and seek support. The Victims’ Rights
Directive, adopted in 2012, will enter into force on 16 November 2015.
It will protect and support millions of victims in Europe.
As for defendants, three new directives are being negotiated:
- one to give prosecuted children better support,
- another to improve standards in provisional legal aid and
- a third to uphold presumption of innocence – which is a crucial principle of fairness and justice.
EU
Citizenship is at the heart of European Integration and can make it
meaningful and concrete for individuals. This is why, as Commissioner in
charge of Justice, I believe that further steps must be taken.
First,
we need to promote and build up the full participation of citizens in
the democratic life of the EU. At the latest European Parliament
elections the clear connection between the outcome of these elections
and the choice of European Commission President gave a new democratic
impetus to the European decision-making process.
As President
Juncker stated in his political guidelines last year, this was only a
first step towards a Union of democratic change. The Commission wants
build on this, to strengthen political accountability, enhance public
interest and create a new sense of civic engagement in for Europe, with
its common values and interests.
Second, we need to make citizens'
daily lives easier, by removing practical difficulties they encounter
when they exercise their EU rights.
This is precisely what I
intend to do with the public consultation on EU citizenship which I will
launch today. We seek to obtain a better insight of what EU citizens
experience in practice and what they think can be done to simplify the
exercise of their EU rights.
We will also ask them their views
about EU common values, such as non-discrimination, and about how these
values can be further promoted. We also hope to gather citizens' ideas
about ways to facilitate and reinforce democratic engagement and
participation.
This will provide the basis for the next
citizenship report in 2016 We are looking forward to the participation
of a broad range of stakeholders in this public consultation. And we
will also be carefully looking at the Court of Justice and its
contribution towards strengthening EU citizenship rights.
I would
therefore like to invite all of you to contribute from your unique
perspective to the reflection on how to tackle remaining obstacles and
enable citizens use their EU citizenship rights to the full.
Thank you for your attention.
