European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker gave a speech at the annual reception of the Academy of European Law (ERA, Europäische Rechtsakademie) on the occasion of the 25th anniversary since its creation. He described judicial systems as the guarantor of democracy, and fundamental rights and legal certainty as the most important pre-condition for the investment into our economies.
Speaking of the European Union, he stressed that “the European Union is at its heart a Community of Law – eine Rechtsgemeinschaft. I have always considered the word “law” to be synonymous with the word ”Europe”. Whether it be protecting our workers from social dumping through the Posting of Workers Directive or protecting our citizens from illegal guns through the Firearms Directive, the law is our best tool to build the Europe that protects, the Europe that empowers and the Europe that defends our citizens.”
President Juncker also stressed the importance of making sure that legislation will have an added value, rather than an added burden: “My defence and passion for law does not mean that I want more of it. Since I took office I focused on having better laws rather than having more laws. As part of our drive for Better Regulation we have gone from 130 initiatives a year, down to the 21 most important initiatives relevant for our citizens.”
With regards to the Rule of Law, President Juncker said: “We cannot take the Rule of Law for granted, we have to defend and improve it. That is true today even more than it ever was.” Finally, the President reaffirmed the European Commission’s commitment to meeting its target of 700,000 legal practitioners – 50% of professionals across the EU – taking part in European judicial training activities by 2020. Over 500,000 professionals have already received training and EU funding is available to support professionals to deepen their knowledge of EU law. The full speech is available here.
