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Current projects

Context

The European Commission’s Communication “Ensuring justice in the EU – a European judicial training strategy for 2021-2024” provides a framework for the proper implementation of the competences that the Lisbon Treaty granted to the EU in relation to judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, especially through training legal professionals so as to improve and make consistent the application of EU law. In addition, the EU training strategy is an indispensable tool to ensure “the effective application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and making the Charter rights a reality in people’s everyday lives”. 
Due to their unique position as regulators of the legal profession (i.e. lawyers) in the various EU Member States, Bars and Law Societies are in the best possible position to help the EU fulfil its objectives in terms of training. As a result of regulating and providing other services to their membership, Bars know where the need for training lies (i.e. which areas of EU law need to be addressed), and how they can be best addressed (i.e. which activities are best suited for successful training, so as to have a direct impact on the rights of citizens and businesses, while also contributing to the rule of law in their Member State). In fact, EU lawyers’ training needs are not static but evolve in parallel with the developments of European society. 

The TRAVAR project is the result of a tri-partite collaboration between the European Lawyers Foundation (ELF), the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and Bars of some EU Member States, whose motivation is the need to train lawyers in various areas of EU law where there is a need for such training. This project targets training in two relevant areas of EU law i.e. the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (the EU Charter) and EU criminal law. This will continue the serious commitment by lawyers’ organisations to training lawyers in EU law and contribute to the reinforcement of the rule of law in the EU, through the implementation of training activities for legal professionals.  

Needs that the project aims to address

TRAVAR is the result of the assessment undertaken by ELF, the CCBE and some EU Bars as organisations which know first-hand, due to their status and work, about lawyers’ needs in training. These needs go from training in “traditional” areas such as EU criminal law to more specific and timely needs such as training about the Unified Patent Court, to mention just two examples. Training needs also refer to the format in which training is delivered, as some lawyers may be better suited to online training whereas others may prefer in-person training due to their field of practice (e.g. criminal lawyers with a cross-border practice, since in-person training positively favours much-needed networking). For all these reasons, TRAVAR has been built considering the training needs of lawyers in different areas of law and in the format in which the training needs to be delivered.

Objectives

  • To train 2.000 lawyers from 26 EU Member States on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights through the holding of 8 webinars on different rights enshrined in the Charter, in the following fields: 

1. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

2. Artificial Intelligence

3. Intellectual Property (general aspects)

4. Intellectual Property (specialised aspects)

5. Digitalisation

6. Unified Patent Court

7. Climate change

8. Preliminary reference before the Court of Justice of the European Union

  • To train on EU Criminal Law and facilitate networking for 205 lawyers from 9 EU Member States through the holding of 7 in-person events in 7 countries (Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, France, Romania and Poland), with a duration of 1.5 days, covering the following topics: right of access to a lawyer, presumption of innocence, legal aid and best practices on the national application of the three procedural rights Directives and the European Arrest Warrant
  • To publish an updated version of the Opens external link in new windowInfosheets on the national implementation of the  three procedural rights directives (access to a lawyer, presumption of innonce and legal aid), covering 9 different EU jurisdictions (Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, France, Romania, Poland, Austria and Bulgaria)

  • To undertake communication activities: (a) to reach the largest possible group of potential participants in the various project training activities, and (b) to keep EU Bars and lawyers informed about the project’s state of play
  • To contribute to the EU’s objective of continuing training on EU law reaching 15% of lawyers in the EU by 2024

Target group

All the organisations participating in this project (ELF, CCBE and EU Bars) are professional legal organisations whose members are national Bars (ELF and CCBE) or lawyers (EU Bars). Therefore, the main target of the project activities are lawyers. All EU Bars are also targeted, as it is very important for them to be regularly informed about the state of play of the project. 
We have decided to focus primarily on lawyers because of the importance of their training needs in the areas of EU law identified. EU Bars will be mainly targeted through communication activities, which will also target lawyers and other legal professionals and stakeholders.

 

Context

BREULAW (the short name for “Development of a lawyer’s training curriculum in EU law and study visits to EU institutions in Brussels”) is a project co-funded by the European Union and run by a consortium composed of the European Lawyers Foundation (ELF) and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). The project started on 1 February 2023 for a period of 24 months.

The project is derived from the Study on the state of play of lawyers’ training in EU, whose Recommendation 1 dealt with the possibility of developing a curriculum for lawyers in EU law, and recommended that the CCBE “promote a dialogue amongst Bars, Law Societies and other competent authorities with a view to obtaining an agreement on the EU-related outcomes of the training process in EU law that all European Union lawyers should possess on their entry into the profession”. Likewise, Recommendation 8 of the Study urged the organisation of “study visits in cooperation with one or several bars from other Member States to familiarise their lawyers with the EU institutions and bodies”. Both the development of the curriculum and the study visits are considered of crucial importance in the training of lawyers in order to improve their skills in EU law and their understanding of EU institutions. The importance of these two activities has also been underlined in the past by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers - DG Justice.

Needs assessment

BREULAW deals with two sets of training activities that are considered necessary for EU lawyers, and were identified in the Study on the state of play of lawyers’ training in EU, previously mentioned.

The project’s first activity deals with the development of a lawyer’s training curriculum in EU law. While substantial work in ensuring consistency between the various lawyers’ professions has been undertaken at EU level in different areas (for instance, in the recognition of training in other Member States through the EU co-funded REFOTRA project run together by ELF and CCBE), there are areas where work still has to be done. One of these areas is a model framework of competences for lawyers in EU law. A lawyer’s training curriculum will complement the CCBE Recommendation on Training Outcomes for European lawyers (adopted in 2007).

The second target of the project focuses on lawyers’ study visits to EU institutions. Whereas lawyers participate in visits to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the framework of other EU-funded projects, there has never been an EU-wide programme to enable lawyers to participate in study visits to Brussels to learn first-hand about the work undertaken by the EU institutions. These visits will be very important for lawyers to understand better how EU law originates and how it is expected to be implemented.

Objectives & activities 

  • To develop a European lawyers’ training curriculum following Recommendation n. 1 of the Study on the state of play of lawyers’ training in EU law, and also complementing the CCBE’s Recommendation on Training Outcomes for European Lawyers, which has been published as a non-binding model framework (non-binding because the competence for training lawyers belongs to the Member States).
  • To organise study visits to Brussels for 46 lawyers, targeting 26 Member States (all except Denmark, which is not part of the EU Justice Programme), so that lawyers can become more familiar with the main EU institutions and learn about their role and functioning. These visits will be complemented by visits to the CCBE and, possibly, to the representative offices of national Bars in Brussels.
  • To facilitate networking opportunities for lawyers participating in the study visits so that informal networks of lawyers can be created.
  • To undertake communication activities about the project.
  • To contribute to the EU’s objective of continuing training on EU law reaching 15% of lawyers in the EU by 2024.

Methodology

The methodology of the project is based both on its nature (cross-border activities focusing on training lawyers in EU law) and on its expected outcome: undertaking policy work (development of a lawyers’ training curriculum in EU law) and training activities (study visits by lawyers to EU institutions). The methodology has been adapted to the various needs in terms of training lawyers in EU law as covered by the project.

 

European Lawyers in Lesvos (ELIL) was founded in June 2016 by the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and the German Bar Association (DAV). In 2019, the French Bar Association (CNB) joined as an ELIL stakeholder. 

ELIL’s mission is to provide free, high-quality legal assistance to asylum seekers in Greece. The initial aim of the project was to provide legal support to asylum seekers on the island of Lesvos. Since then, ELIL expanded its operations to the island of Samos and opened additional offices in Athens and Thessaloniki to assist asylum seekers on the Greek mainland and adapt to the changing needs.

ELIL provides one-on-one legal consultations to prepare people for their asylum interview, provides legal assistance to children, assists with family reunification applications, and organises group legal information sessions. 

More information about the ELIL is available here.


Past projects

The project AI4Lawyers is run by a consortium composed of the European Lawyers Foundation (ELF) and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). The project was awarded by the European Commission Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, and will run for 24 months starting on 1st April 2020.

Current situation

Computational science has experienced significant growth since the second half of the last century. However, this growth has not been linear, and has increased at frenetic speed, bringing terms such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain or cloud computing into citizens’ daily lives. The development of computational science was not horizontal either (as it was originally mainly focused on military advancements), but it is now: it affects all sectors of society and of the economy, from improvements in agriculture and farming, to more sophisticated machines used in industry, to a real revolution in the services sector.

Justice is of course also highly influenced by computational science; for instance, blockchain could be used to ensure the legal validity that now is provided by notaries in some legal acts. In general terms, computational science provides many opportunities for the legal sector that could make a significant and positive impact in making justice cheaper and faster and, consequently, increasing and improving access to justice. Nevertheless, this is just one side of the coin, as the use of AI in justice also generates major challenges that could negatively impact citizens’ rights as well as lawyers’ abilities to meet their professional obligations.

A clear example is the safeguarding of professional secrecy, which guarantees the necessary openness and confidentiality of lawyer-client relations. The question also arises how phenomena like access to, and exploitation of, open data regarding judicial decisions, enabling predictive systems and analysis through algorithms, can be governed and then integrated into public policies.

Lawyers and law firms are already using IT back-office tools in their daily practice, tools used in connection with interfacing with governmental bodies, etc.

But there is not a coherent understanding of the "average state of the art" of IT capabilities of lawyers and law firms in the European Union, nor an overview of the opportunities and barriers regarding the use of natural language processing tools in small and medium sized law practices. Indeed, this is also closely linked with ongoing EU policy activities in the field of AI, such as the Communication from the European Commission on “Building trust in human-centric Artificial Intelligence” as well as the “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI” of the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, which proves the EU’s ambition to set a global standard for trustworthy AI. This project will contribute to engaging lawyers with these important developments.

Needs that the project aims to address

IT advances much faster than law does. This generates some problems (e.g. criminal codes may be under continual revision with the appearance of new IT-based crimes), but also creates a need for legal professionals to be up to date with the development of IT tools in their daily practice. These challenges are clear in relation to AI, and it is for this reason that the EU, in the e-Justice Action Plan for 2019-2023, considers AI “as one of the major developments in information and communication technologies in recent years and should be further developed in coming years. Its implications in the field of e-Justice need to be further defined”.

This need is specifically mentioned in relation to lawyers, as is also clear in the e-Justice Action plan, which considers as a priority (project listed as number 11) the “draft[ing] of a guide on the use of Artificial Intelligence by lawyers in the EU”. AI policy has long been on the agenda of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). Briefly, in addition to the CCBE conference on Artificial Intelligence and Humane Justice held in Lille in November 2018, the CCBE has contributed to the formulation of the European Ethical Charter on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Judicial Systems and their Environment, adopted by the Council of Europe Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) in December 2018. The CCBE is also a member of the Commission’s Expert Group on liability and new technologies, and in 2016 published an e-book entitled “Innovation and Future of the Legal Profession in Europe” which critically assesses and evaluates the opportunities and threats facing the legal profession and justice systems in the coming years.

The CCBE has identified three major needs that have to be addressed without delay, and that indeed constitute the main objects of this project. These three are the following:

  1. a detailed overview of "average state of the art" IT capabilities of lawyers and law firms in the European Union and a gap analysis using comparisons with other non-EU countries;
  2. an assessment of the opportunities and barriers in the use of natural language processing tools in small and medium sized law practices;
  3. guidance for EU lawyers and law firms on the use of AI in legal practice.

Major objectives to be attained

  • To create an overview of the ‘average state of the art’ of the IT capabilities of lawyers and law firms in the EU.
  • To identify the opportunities and barriers in the use of natural language processing tools in SME law practices.
  • The drafting of a guide on the use of AI by lawyers and law firms in the EU, as specifically mentioned as a priority in the European e-Justice Action Plan 2019-2023.
  • To keep European lawyers and law firms, Bars and Law Societies and other stakeholders informed about the state play of the project and its outcomes.
  • To promote the guide on the use of AI for EU lawyers and law firms by using the various partners’ communication tools, and by holding an event where the guide will be presented to these target groups.

Project’s impact

This project will be determinant in providing necessary help to lawyers and law firms in the understanding of the impact of AI and other novel IT technologies in their daily practice. Taking into account that not all lawyers and law firms in the EU have the same level of IT readiness, the guide may be a key element in changing the behaviour of those lawyers and law firms that see more dangers than benefits in the use of new technologies in their legal practice. This change of behaviour may contribute to a faster and cheaper justice that could be translated into better access to justice for citizens in various EU Member States. In any case, the guide will also be very useful for those lawyers and law firms whose level of expertise in the use of IT tools is more advanced than the average, since the guide will also cover best practice functionalities in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada.

The project includes innovative aspects, as it will be a serious attempt to deal with an issue that has to be addressed without delay and that can best be treated from an EU perspective. 

Context

On 27th May 2019, the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST) of the European Commission (EC) published a tender notice on the “Development and Organisation of Training for Lawyers on Anti-money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AML-CTF) Rules at EU Level”. This tender was awarded to a consortium composed of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and the European Lawyers Foundation (ELF)  with an outstanding score of 92 out of 100 points.

AML-CTF is a clear priority for the CCBE, which has a Committee on Anti-Money Laundering that has been promoting policy positions on behalf of European lawyers for years.

ELF provides training for EU lawyers in various fields of EU law and has good experience in knowing what the needs of EU lawyers are regarding training. 

The project will last for 24 months and officially started on 18 November 2019. A kick-off meeting with EC officials took place on 2nd December 2019.

Objectives

The general objective of the project is training in, raising awareness of and promotion of the key principles and concepts of the EU AML-CTF rules among lawyers. The project will analyse, assess and support lawyers’ needs by increasing their awareness of their role and obligations in the fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism under the Directives.

The project activities are aimed at helping lawyers understand how they can best: 

  • Access and understand relevant AML/CTF obligations; reflect on the ways lawyers and law firms may be misused in the context of money laundering and terrorist financing. 
  • Reflect on practices lawyers and law firms should adopt in their particular jurisdiction and in accordance with the relevant bar rules, to ensure the highest ethical standards of the profession are maintained.
  • Identify the problems that may arise in the interpretation of specific provisions in the light of hypothetical and actual cases and in view, in particular, of the continuity of their business relationships with their clients and other considerations; 

Project activities

The project is divided into three main sets of activities:

  1. Development of a strategy for training lawyers on their obligations under AML/CTF Directives: this will be composed of sub-activities such as the drafting of a Training Need Assessment and the drafting of an overall strategy, which will include also the relevant AML/CTF context (Including legislation and case-law). 
  2. Production of an EU-level training programme (TP): the TP will be complemented by a manual for trainers (which will allow trainers to organise successful training for lawyers on AML/CTF) and a user’s manual (which will contain relevant information for lawyers).
  3. Training activities: two kind of activities will take place: 
    • Training for trainers: a group of 15 trainers coming from different EU jurisdictions will be trained at an event in Brussels. The objective is to give these trainers the opportunity to re-use the training modules presented to them and adapt them to their own training activities and national specificities.
    • Regional cross-border training activities: three regional seminars will be organised in three different EU Member States to train lawyers on AML/CTF on the basis of the TP. Lawyers from different Member States will be selected and will be grouped into one of the 3 training seminars. Participants will have their travel and accommodation costs reimbursed by the project. In addition to geographical representation, the project will focus on ensuring the participation of lawyers in terms of gender balance and representation of big, medium and small law firms and self-employed lawyers. 

All these activities will be supported by comprehensive dissemination over the duration of   the project. Information about the project will be provided through various communication tools such as a dedicated website (www.AML4lawyers.eu, available soon), the use of social media (mainly the CCBE and ELF’s LinkedIn and Twitter accounts) and the CCBE’s e-newsletter CCBE-info. National Bars and Law Societies will be kept informed through the information presented to them regularly at CCBE Standing Committees and Plenary Sessions. 

Disclaimer

This information has been produced under a contract with the European Union (Ref.: JUST/2018/JACC/PR/CRIM/018)  and does not represent the official opinion of the European Commission. Neither the Commission nor any person acting on the Commission’s behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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The recognition of foreign training activities for lawyers (i.e. training pursued by EU lawyers in a Member State other than the one where they are registered) is an issue discussed for some years by the Training Committee.

In February 2017, the CCBE Memorandum on Mutual Recognition of Lawyers’ Cross-Border Continuing Professional Development, was signed by 40 European Bars and Law Societies. The Memorandum was an important step towards mutual recognition. Through this Memorandum the signatory parties agreed that:

“The number of CPD course hours attended or CPD credits of the training courses obtained by lawyers enrolled in a Bar or Law Society of a member country, should be considered in their signatory jurisdiction of origin to help fulfil their requirements of CPD obligations, in accordance with national, regional or local rules or regulations and without prejudice to each national, regional or local evaluation system.”

Major objectives and phases of REFOTRA project

The project was divided into 3 different phases, and each phase dealt with an important objective:

  1. to complete the research undertaken by the CCBE in 2015 and 2016 on national mandatory continuing training regimes in order to have a full understanding of the current situation of mutual recognition of cross-border training in EU Member States;
  2. to produce recommendations;
  3. to evaluate with Bars and Law Societies of some EU Member States as to how recognition based on the recommendation(s) would work.

In the margins of the Phase 1 of the project REFOTRA questionnaire on continuing legal education was developed by a core group, it was supported by the Training committee of CCBE and it was sent to CCBE member Bars on 1 October 2018.

The results of the questionnaire were compiled in the Assessment report on the situation in EU and EEA Member States regarding recognition of foreign training. The report was presented for information to the CCBE Standing committee on 29 March 2019.

The CCBE’s recommendations on solutions to facilitate the recognition of cross-border training were approved in July 2019 as a result of the Phase 2.

During the Phase 3 of the project the proposed certificate template for cross-border CLE training was tested by volunteer Bars, Law Societies and training providers. 

According to the Grant agreement signed with the EC, at least the three bars participating throughout the project in the core project team would participate in the test phase. These bars were:

  • Ireland - Law Society of Ireland
  • Italy - Consiglio Nazionale Forense (CNF)  
  • Poland - Krajowa Izba Radców Prawnych - The National Bar Council of Attorneys-at-Law (KIRP)

An invitation went out to other bars to join the test as well, and there was a positive response from several Bars: 

  • Belgium - Barreau de Bruxelles (Ordre Français) – French-speaking Bar of Brussels
  • Finland - Finnish Bar Association
  • Germany (Rechtsanwaltskammer Frankfurt am Main – Frankfurt Bar; Rechtsanwaltskammer München – Munich Bar; Rechtsanwaltskammer Köln – Cologne Bar)
  • United Kingdom (Faculty of Advocates, Scotland; Law Society of England and Wales)

In addition, the International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA) participated through the issue of template certificates to participants at their annual conference in Rome in September 2019.

There were two kinds of test undertaken during Phase 3 – real testing and simulated testing (because of concerns that not sufficient number of real template certificates would be returned within the short period during which the test ran).

The number of certificates used as well as feedback received was assessed. As a result, the Phase 3 evaluation report was prepared with conclusion “in the light of the positive experiences reported during the project’s test phase, and if individual bars decide to support it, the REFOTRA certificate template is suggested for use to facilitate the recognition of cross-border continuing legal education within the EU”.

This document was agreed by the CCBE Training committee and presented to the Standing committee of the CCBE for information on 26 June 2020.

The Find-A-Lawyer 3 project (FAL 3) started on 15 October 2015 and will run for 18 months. FAL 3 will offer the necessary resources for the CCBE to focus on improvements in the FAL 1 Search Engine, the lawyer-search function now housed on the European Commission’s e-justice portal. It will also provide resources for a feasibility study about new functionalities which currently appear in other lawyers’ search engines. At the same time, FAL 3 will fill in the time gap between the delivery of the FAL 2 tool (verification of a lawyer’s role in electronic proceedings) and the go-live date of that project - during that period, the CCBE will undertake the hosting of FAL 2, will provide helpdesk support to participating bars and newcomers, and will perform integration testing with other electronic systems such as e-CODEX. During the FAL 3 implementation period, the CCBE will also attempt to achieve full coverage of FAL 1 and majority coverage among its member bars of FAL 2.

The CCBE, together with the European Lawyers’ Foundation, is working on a project which aims at contributing to the correct and consistent implementation of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) again from the point of view of defence practitioners. In particular, the project is focusing on the following objectives:

  • Identification of the implementation at national level of the Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA on the European Arrest Warrant in all EU Member States.
  • Identification of good practices carried out in the 28 Member States in order to ensure defence rights
  • Presentation of recommendations focused on the improvement of defence rights in EAW cases

The project aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the state of play on the implementation of the EAW in the different Member States from the point of view of the defence. The project aims to identify a catalogue of good practices in EAW proceedings in different Member States that can be used by authorities and the defence at a national level to assist with any existing problems. The project will include recommendations which could be of use to the EU institutions when considering future legislation. In any case, the recommendations will also deal with short-term actions that can assist defence rights in EAW proceedings.

The project aims to promote the practical use of, and to share best practice on the organisational, technical and legal aspects of, cross-border videoconferencing in order to help improve the overall functioning of e-Justice systems in Member States and at European level. The project is coordinated by the Austrian Ministry of Justice. The CCBE’s expertise in criminal and civil law allows it to identify cases that benefit from cross-border video-conferencing, and the CCBE seeks to ensure compliance with procedural rights and duties of the parties.

The project is due to end in September 2016.

EVIDENCE aims at providing a road map (guidelines, recommendations, and technical standards) for developing the missing Common European Framework for the systematic and uniform application of new technologies in the collection, use and exchange of evidence. The road map will incorporate standardised solutions enabling more efficient regulation, treatment and exchange of digital evidence by law enforcement agencies as well as judges, prosecutors and lawyers practising in the criminal field. The CCBE contributed to the elaboration of e.g. data protection issues, mapping of obstacles and facilitating factors, and existing standards for treatment and exchange of electronic evidence.

The project is due to end in September 2016.

The CCBE, together with the European Lawyers’ Foundation, worked on a project which aimed at achieving a comprehensive analysis of the implementation at a national level (in the countries where the Directives apply) of the following three Directives (from the point of view of defence practitioners):

  • Directive 2010/64 on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings;
  • Directive 2012/13) on the Right to information in criminal proceedings; and
  • Directive 2013/48 on the right of access to a lawyer in criminal proceedings and in European arrest warrant proceedings, and on the right to have a third party informed upon deprivation of liberty and to communicate with third persons and with consular authorities while deprived of liberty.

The project lasted from 15 April 2015 to 14 April 2016. The report itself is 80 pages long and the annexes (which contain the original responses to the questionnaires) are a further 270 pages.

The report contains an analysis of the Directives and identifies good practices and recommendations (see pages 6-9 for the recommendations).

The full report can be found here.

The CCBE participated in the e-CODEX project which, among other things, aimed at linking national e-justice systems to each other to permit electronic communication exchange to facilitate the participation of lawyers in cross-border e-proceedings. In 2015, e-CODEX further developed its pilot phase and increased the testing of its use cases. The CCBE initiated a new use case in e-CODEX on lawyer-to-court communication, i.e. the European Payment Order (EPO), sent by lawyers. This use case was linked to the FAL 2 project, since the electronic identity of the lawyers sending the EPO has to be validated.

The project ended in June 2016.

More information about the project can be found here.


European Lawyers Foundation

The European lawyers foundation: an organisation for the benefit of Bars and Lawyers of the EU