El blog de Maria

More and more Europeans are working, studying or living in different Member States to the one of their birth.  Consequently, the probability that citizens are involved in civil justice in another Member State is increasing exponentially.

In a genuine European judicial area citizens should be able to assert their rights throughout the Union.

The Commission has launched this summer, the e-Justice portal in order to provide information to citizens on how to solve their legal problems abroad. The site, which already has more than 12 000 pages of content, provides access to justice across the EU and provides quick responses to the concerns of citizens' on legal matters. Has so far received 125 000 visits.

European citizens continue to face obstacles due to differences between legal systems of Member States. We must ensure that such differences do not hinder the access to civil justice that they have in their own country.

Figures

According to the survey:

    * 56% of European citizens find it difficult to access civil justice in another EU country.
    * 73% of European citizens are in favor of adopting additional measures to facilitate access to justice in other Member States.
    * 52% believed that such measures should be taken by common standards at EU level.
    * 68% of EU citizens believe the EU should intervene in how they apply national standards in international divorce cases and financial matters related to spouses from different EU countries.
    * 58% of respondents are in favor of the EU to take further steps to improve the recognition of documents in the Member States.

Generalife Gardens by Joao Máximo at Flickr.com