The Live Wire



Press Release

Law Society welcomes Czech go-ahead on Treaty of Lisbon

4 November 2009

The President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, today signed the Treaty of Lisbon paving the way for the Treaty to come into effect. This marks the end of over two years of decision-making stalemate in the European Union.

Welcoming this development, Law Society President, Robert Heslett, says:

"The need for transparency, better democratic accountability and enhanced judicial scrutiny in the EU made the Treaty of Lisbon necessary. It will bring about much-needed change by streamlining complex legislative procedures and enhancing the role of the directly elected Parliament in areas of vital importance such as criminal justice and civil liberties."

The Society points out that the Treaty facilitates access to justice by improving direct access to the European courts for individuals and organisations, and paves the way for many more challenges to be brought by individual businesses in European courts. It underlines the EU's power to legislate in areas such as family and criminal law, subject to certain national provisos, and highlights the development of alternative dispute resolution.

Robert Heslett says: "In our recently launched EU priorities 2009-2014 paper we call on the EU to improve access to justice and guarantee rights. The new EU framework should go along way in making progress in this area".

Julia Bateman, head of the Society's Brussels Office, adds: "Solicitors practising in all areas of law – from the High Street to the City - need to be familiar with EU law when advising their clients in order to ensure that they can give the best possible service to those clients by exploring every avenue of redress."

In order to keep up to date with developments on issues ranging from anti-money laundering, financial services, dispute resolution and private client matters solicitors can take advantage of the monitoring services of the Society's long-established Brussels Office and receive strategic advice on how to influence EU decision making process.

The Treaty could now come into force as early as December.



Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.

More from Dods

© Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd