In its contribution to the 2025 Rule of Law Report, the CCBE lists its actions, activities and policy documents relevant to different rule of law related aspects. This submission is accompanied by input received from the national Bars and Law Societies of 27 EU Member States and 4 EU candidate countries covered by the 2024 Rule of Law Report (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia), listing different rule of law developments at national level, with a particular focus on those posing a risk and potentially undermining the independence of lawyers and Bars and access to justice.

Many national Bars have provided information on developments and indicated some trends which pose a risk to the independence of the legal profession and functioning of the justice system in a particular country. They have also provided some positive examples and best practices relevant to this assessment.

Specific cases, concrete examples, and trends are listed and explained in detail in the national Bar reports in the Annex 1 and Annex 2 to this contribution. In the conclusion part of the document, only some examples and developments in the justice systems of concrete countries are briefly mentioned.

For example, members of the CCBE reported about the concerns and trends posing a risk to the independence of the legal profession and functioning of the justice system in the following areas:

• confidentiality of lawyer-client communications;
• physical, online or legal threats or harassment of lawyers;
• legal provisions and policies which could negatively influence the independence of the Bar and lawyers;
• cooperation between the national Bar and the executive branch of the government and
• the supervisory authorities;
• implementation of the case law of national, European, and international courts;
• perception of the judicial system by the general public;
• legal aid;
• digitalisation of justice;
• other relevant national developments in various areas.

The 2024 Rule of Law Report of the European Commission examines developments across all Member States, both positive and negative, in four key areas for the rule of law: the justice system, the anti-corruption framework, media pluralism and freedom, and other institutional issues related to checks and balances. It includes country chapters for all 27 Member States, which rely on a qualitative assessment carried out by the Commission, analyse new developments since the previous Report and the follow-up to the challenges and developments identified in the 2023 edition.  For the first time, the 2024 Report also includes country chapters on four enlargement countries (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia).