Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-13-Speech-2-193"
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"en.20010313.13.2-193"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, cooperation in the taking of evidence is a specific example of judicial cooperation in civil matters referred to in Article 65 of the Treaty establishing the European Community.
By virtue of this specific reference in the Treaty, this question was included by the Council in the Vienna Action Plan, in the conclusions of the Tampere European Council, and it was subsequently covered in the Commission's scoreboard for the establishment of a common area of freedom, security and justice. As mentioned by the rapporteur, whom I would like to congratulate on his excellent report, this question was addressed in the 1970 Hague Convention on the taking of evidence abroad in civil or commercial matters, which has to date only been ratified by 11 of the Member States of the European Union.
The increase in the mobility of persons within the common area of the European Union is one of the factors that has made an important contribution to the growth in the number of law cases with cross-border implications. For example, when it comes to taking evidence, legal proceedings taking place under the jurisdiction of one Member State increasingly involve taking evidence from witnesses resident in another Member State. This is why it has become necessary to adopt clear and effective rules on cooperation between courts in the Member States with a view to facilitating the taking of evidence in such situations. These rules will no doubt represent a significant step forward in the work currently being done to improve access to justice, either on the part of individuals or of companies, and also in pursuing the wider objective of creating a European legal area in civil matters.
Accordingly, this regulation will enhance the value of European citizenship and of protecting and guaranteeing our citizens' individual rights, and it is also of not insignificant economic importance, in that by facilitating the taking of evidence, it will make swifter and more effective administration of justice more economically viable, and in particular administration of justice more in line with the necessities of a new economic reality, of the single market, the single currency and electronic democracy.
In view of these considerations, the Commission welcomes the German initiative for a regulation in this field. Furthermore, the Commission does not have any bias against initiatives by Member States, especially when such initiatives are in line with the priorities defined by the Tampere European Council. The German initiative also gives us an opportunity to move forward and modernise the rules of the 1970 Hague Convention, with the added value of adopting a Community instrument that can be uniformly and directly applied to the legal system of each of the 15 Member States.
This is an initial phase, the central objective of which is to create the mechanisms needed to strengthen mutual confidence between the legal and judicial systems of the 15 Member States. This initial phase should, once the effects of implementing the regulation have been assessed, open up the way for more ambitious objectives, and in particular those which would make it possible for the requesting court to ask for a special procedure to be employed by the requested court in performing a judicial act, together with the option of the requesting court being associated with the performing of the judicial act by the requested court.
We therefore welcome the support the rapporteur has given to this initiative. Furthermore, the Commission is in sympathy with the general points he has raised, and with the general approach of the amendments he has proposed. I can assure you that for our part we will closely monitor and assist the discussions on this initiative in the relevant Council committee, with a view to producing a text which precisely reflects the concerns expressed by Parliament in the Marinho report."@en1
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