Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee on the application of Directive 2003/8/EC to improve access to justice in cross border disputes by establishing minimum common rules relating to legal aid for such disputes

In a genuine European area of justice, individuals and businesses should not be discouraged from exercising their rights by the complexity of legal and administrative systems. All citizens should be able to approach the courts and authorities of any Member State as easily as they would those of their home country. Access to justice should not be precluded by the costs inherent in the cross-border dimension of a dispute in civil and commercial matters.

The European Council called on the Council and the Commission in 1999 to establish minimum standards to ensure an adequate level of legal aid in cross-border civil cases throughout the Union. Following the proposal of the Commission issued on 18 January 2002, the Council adopted Directive 2003/8/EC to improve access to justice in cross-border disputes by establishing minimum common rules relating to legal aid for such disputes on 27 January 2003. The Directive entered into force on 30 November 2004.

The Commission launched a study in 2010 in order to be provided with input to assess in detail the transposition and the application of the Directive. The study provides for a legal analysis and an empirical part based on a survey conducted among the different groups of stakeholders from all Member States.

This report presents the Commission's assessment of the application of the Directive for the period 30 April 2004 – 31 December 2010. Although the Directive is applicable in relation to various European procedures, such as the European Small Claims procedure, and supports their application, this report does not include specific information on the use of the Directive in the context of the European procedures due to a very short period of time between entry into application and the data collection carried out for this report by the above-mentioned study.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)071: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:071:FIN

European Commission: SWD(2012)20: Commission staff working document http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=SWD:2012:0020:FIN:EN:PDF

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