The new president of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) has pledged to promote access to legal aid across Europe during his year in office.

Georges-Albert Dal, a former president of the Brussels Bar Association, said he would make ‘special efforts’ to support Europe’s commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, Viviane Reding, who told a CCBE conference in November 2010 that the EU was committed to broadening the scope of legal aid across all member states. Dal added: ‘The CCBE will also focus on the costs of justice, financial support for legal aid and legal aid for victims.’

Meanwhile, Reding has caused a European Commission document to be redrafted so as not to degrade the legal profession in the UK and elsewhere. A paragraph in a paper setting in place a scheme for the first European governance of countries’ fiscal policies originally read: ‘Member states should identify and remove restrictions on professional services such as quotas and compulsory memberships of professional associations.’

Reding said the wording would have harmed lawyers, because there are good reasons for law societies and bar associations: solicitors and barristers must be qualified, pass an exam and know the law to become members of them, all good reasons in the public interest.

The revised paragraph now reads: ‘Member states should identify and remove unjustified restrictions on professional services such as quotas and closed shops.’