The summer break is over. Newly elected MEPs are beginning to meet, and the policy machine is grinding into action once again. So, what is on the agenda generally, and for lawyers in particular?For Europe itself, the issues are so large that it is buckling under them. The biggest is the EU’s own identity, which has been lost somewhere. This will be highlighted in the coming weeks with the appointment process of the new president of the commission. The outgoing President, Manuel Barroso, is the only candidate currently in the frame, and that is a symptom of the larger problem. Everyone admits that he is charming and intelligent, but so what? He has been weak and unable to give the EU an identity in his four-year mandate. An even bigger test of the EU’s identity will come with the outcome of the second Irish vote on the Lisbon Treaty on 2 October.

Lawyers have an interest in the outcome of the Barroso vote. It is in the successful presidential candidate’s hands how the commission is organised, and we want a separate Directorate General for Justice. Until now, justice and home affairs have been bundled together, with poor results: there is no one to trumpet justice when security concerns are dominant, and some justice issues bypass the directorate altogether. We are busy lobbying MEPs and Barroso himself with our wishes, and the notion of a separate DG Justice is gaining traction.

Among the other overwhelming issues facing Europe, immigration is among the most urgent. People are pouring in, on boats from sub-Saharan Africa into the Mediterranean countries, and overland from the east. The entry countries – large Italy, tiny Malta, for instance – can no longer cope on their own. Immigration issues gobble up more and more attention. But there are others: climate change (you have just felt the effects of the EU’s new light bulb measures); a united front on bankers’ bonuses and financial regulation in general; and energy security. The list is daunting.

For lawyers, the new term brings other challenges. There has been a long-rumbling debate with the commissioner responsible for administrative affairs, Siim Kallas, about the commission’s wish that lawyers and law firms register on the commission’s year-old register for lobbyists. Lawyers repeat that they cannot do so because of client confidentiality and professional secrecy. This has garnered bad coverage for the legal profession and Commissioner Kallas maintains his stance.

The onward march of e-Justice is leading to serious thought about how lawyers will be identified as lawyers in cross-border transactions. If an insolvency registry in Italy, or a company registry in Finland, allows you access to finalise a transaction, what kind of technology will be used to identify you as a lawyer? The UK delegation to the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe is insistent that it should be the simplest and should not involve the mandatory use of card-and-chip technology, but others differ. Various systems are being developed in the member states, and we will have to be sure that we make our case with a united view at the appropriate moment.

The Stockholm Programme will be adopted by the end of this year, laying out the justice priorities for Europe over the next 5 years. One of its proposals will touch the training of lawyers. Should there be a single academy at European level, for training judges, prosecutors and lawyers in European law, and in the law of other member states? At the moment, judges and prosecutors receive this training for free, through subsidy from the European Commission and national governments. Should lawyers – who are eligible only for 80% funding – be treated on the same basis? Should all the legal professions be trained side-by-side?

These are the kinds of issues we can predict as the term begins. But events will overtake us, and present new challenges, on which I will report as the weeks pass.

Jonathan Goldsmith is the Secretary General of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), which represents over 700,000 European lawyers through its member bars and law societies