The European Commission (EC) is this week expected to move a significant step closer to ensuring that all those facing criminal charges across the EU have access to legal representation.
As the Gazette went to press, the EC was expected to publish a legislative proposal that would give people arrested in the EU the right to be given information about their legal rights and the charges against them in simple language.
They would also have a right of access to a lawyer and interpreter, and the right to tell family and others that they have been detained.
The proposal has already been scrutinised by member states and debated in European and national parliaments. Following publication this week, it will then need to be formally adopted by each government within the EU.
The Law Society said it is calling on European governments to ‘act swiftly to ensure that the proposal is adopted as a matter of urgency’.
Law Society Brussels office policy adviser Susan Clements said: ‘We have long campaigned for legislation to ensure that individuals’ rights are protected across Europe.
‘After long failing to reach agreement on a package of basic rights, European justice ministers in November 2009 finally agreed on a "roadmap" on procedural rights for suspects and the accused in criminal proceedings.’
She added that this week’s legislative proposal was ‘just one step in the roadmap’ and that another important step, the provision of legal aid, was ‘not expected’ until 2013.
Fair Trials International (FTI) chief executive Jago Russell said: ‘It is shocking that people across the EU are still being denied effective access to a lawyer at crucial points in their criminal case. Legal guarantees of this most basic fair trial right are long overdue.’
FTI policy adviser Catherine Heard said that the organisation was often contacted by individuals who had been denied legal representation when detained abroad in established western democracies, as well as recently acceded nations.
The EC is also expected to begin a consultation on 14 June covering detention in the EU, including overcrowding, the rights of children and alternatives such as bail.
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