The Queen has been reigning since before I was born (I know it doesn’t look like that from my photo), but here in Brussels we chant ‘the president is dead! Long live the president!’ every six months. We have just seen the end of the unmourned Czech presidency of the EU, and this week the Swedish presidency has begun.

The nonsense of the revolving EU presidency will stop if the Lisbon Treaty is ever implemented. I realise that the Lisbon Treaty will end civilisation as we know it, but among its sensible provisions is article 9 B.5, which says that: ‘The European Council shall elect its president, by a qualified majority, for a term of two and a half years, renewable once.’

The next six months of the Swedish presidency are important for lawyers. This is because every five years the justice part of the EU lays out its priorities for the following five years, and the Swedes have the luck to bring this to fruition during their presidency, in the so-called 'Stockholm programme'.

If you were to read the European Commission communication on this, laying out their vision to be discussed by justice ministers next week, you would likely fall asleep for 100 years. So here is a potted guide to a few of the items in the long list that will be in the Stockholm programme, and how you will be affected.

(1) First, what is not in it? You will find no reference to some of the really important justice issues going through the European institutions – proposals for collective redress, for instance – because they are not dealt with by the right ministry (or DG, as it is called). The Stockholm programme deals only with the responsibilities of DG justice, freedom and security, but collective redress is dealt with by DG health and consumers, and DG competition. This is madness! There needs to be a standalone DG justice, dealing with only justice issues and all justice issues, as soon as possible.

(2) All European lawyers and human rights bodies agree that the balance in crime fighting at EU level has gone too far in favour of the prosecution. More needs to be done for the defence. This rebalancing is usually envisaged as the introduction of minimum procedural safeguards for suspects and defendants in criminal proceedings. Some of the member states – with the big, bad UK in the lead – have led the charge against this proposal. The Swedes – goodies here – are trying to reintroduce the minimum safeguards, maybe only one by one rather than as a grand package. They deserve lawyers’ full support and we will be fighting to ensure that the strongest and fullest package appears in the final programme.

(3) Do you want documents drawn up by notaries to have precedence over documents drawn up by other kinds of lawyers, such as solicitors, in terms of cross-border recognition? The answer must be no. All European lawyers, even those from countries with notaries, say no to this. But, following a misconceived European Parliament initiative along these lines, work will proceed on it in the next five years. We have to lobby for equal recognition of all acts and documents with analogous effect, whether drawn up by notaries or other legal professionals.

(4) E-Justice is coming. The Swedes plan to launch within the period of their presidency – on 15 December – a European e-Justice portal. The rush to make as much electronic as possible will present opportunities (for instance, cross-border access via lawyer e-identity to registries like land or company registries) and some human rights threats (such as greater use of videoconferencing in criminal cases, or the linking of criminal databases).

A full response by the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe to these and other issues in the Stockholm programme list can be found here.

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.