Debate: Justice programme -
Date: TUESDAY, 27 APRIL 2021
Speaker: Heidi Hautala
Country: Poland
Language: EN

Here in the European Parliament, preparing this Justice Programme was a joint effort of the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). I had the honour and pleasure to be the rapporteur on behalf of JURI. The cooperation with the LIBE rapporteur has always been excellent. I started with Mr Weidenholzer and I continued with Ms Barley. I also want to thank the Parliament services, especially the JURI and LIBE Committees, for their relentless work that, in my view, led to excellent results with the help of the Commission. The negotiations with the Council and the Commission were tough but fair. In the end, we reached an outcome that is not just technical, but mirrors the EU’s values and seeks solutions to concrete problems we are facing. The rule of law and fundamental rights in the EU cannot be defended without a well-functioning, independent and impartial justice system.  The programme focuses on persons and entities which contribute to make our common values – equality, rights and rich diversity – alive and vibrant. It is important that all relevant stakeholders, including civil society actors, are involved in the development of the legal system and can access funding. In this case, the Justice Programme has EUR 305 million in total under this programme. It’s just one fifth of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme, but it is essential to guarantee a uniform European sphere of law.  This programme has three main objectives: it facilitates and supports judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, promoting the rule of law, independence and impartiality of the judiciary; it supports and promotes judicial training, with a view to fostering a common legal, judicial and rule of law culture; and it facilitates effective and non-discriminatory access to justice for all, and an effective redress, including by electronic, e-Justice means. Special attention is given to mainstreaming. In the implementation of all of its actions, the programme shall seek to promote gender equality, the rights of the child and child-friendly justice, the protection of victims and the effective application of the principle of equal rights and non-discrimination. While judicial cooperation may not necessarily be in the forefront of the EU’s climate action, Parliament secured that this programme ought also to support activities that respect the climate and environmental standards and priorities of the Union and the ‘do no harm’ principle of the European Green Deal. The programme foresees different kinds of actions that are eligible for funding. The programme can be used, for example, for awareness-raising, mutual learning and the exchange of good practices among stakeholders to improve knowledge of Union policies and Union law. It can also be used for analytical and monitoring activities to improve knowledge and understanding of potential obstacles to the smooth functioning of a European area of justice. It can be used to train relevant stakeholders, and let me mention here that we have new emerging areas of law because our society is evolving in terms of technology and social systems and the like and we have newly emerging areas, for instance environmental justice, which the justice professionals have to understand better. The programme will also be used for developing and maintaining information and communication technology (ICT) as well as e-Justice tools, which will take into account privacy and data protection.  This is a long list, but what makes me particularly happy is to see how the programme clearly acknowledges the role of civil society in this field too. The promotion of the rule of law will benefit from specific support and the Commission will report annually on the performance of the programme and the use of the funds for each specific objective, including actions linked to the promotion of gender equality. The interinstitutional negotiations were concluded on 18 December 2020. In February 2021, both COREPER, as well as the JURI and LIBE Committees in this Parliament, accepted the outcome of the negotiations. As a final step, the Council adopted its position on 19 April 2021. I can confirm that its position fully reflects the agreement reached and that in the Council, all delegations, except for Hungary and Poland, voted in favour. As the co-rapporteur, I cannot but hope that the regulation is swiftly adopted and enters into force as soon as possible.