The European Days belong among the most extensive information events. Following the example, the European Commission and the Council of Europe have established a European Day of Civil Justice on 25 October each year in order for you to have Civil law directly at your fingertips.
This European Day represents an opportunity to reach out to citizens and make Civil Justice both more familiar and more accessible to them. As declared by Mr António Vitorino, the member of the European Commission with responsibility for Justice and Home Affairs "European integration in this field is advancing by leaps and bounds. However, the concept of justice and the image of the courts are most often associated, in the public's mind, with criminal law".
"The main idea is to create a symbolic event, a date on which we recall that justice is first and foremost a service to citizens which enables them to settle their private conflicts and assert their rights. Civil law is omnipresent in the life of all citizens - at work, or when they get married, have children, or buy goods and services. This is what led to the idea of dedicating a day to Civil Justice", explained Mr António Vitorino. (Press release pdf 12 KB).
European citizens are often ignorant of their rights and still more ignorant of how Civil Justice works. The European Day of Civil Justice will be an event intended to highlight the issue of Civil Justice, to arouse interest in information and awareness campaigns and to enable European citizens to better understand exactly how judicial systems work in practice. The idea is therefore to raise awareness about an emerging Judicial Area for all Europeans.
On the European Day of Justice specific events will be initiated by Member States of the European Union and the Council of Europe around 25 October. The events planned could result in local conferences, open days, guided tours, meetings with legal practitioners or activities for young people. The main objective of those events is to bring Civil Justice closer to the citizens. The European Day of Civil Justice forms part of a continuous policy of information and communication expressed by the European Council at its Tampere meeting in 1999 which has already resulted in the website of the European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters, accessible to the public.
Every year, the European Commission and the Council of Europe will be more closely associated to one or another event.
For this year, on Thursday 23 October between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., the Commission will be organising an online discussion forum between Jonathan Faull, the Director-General for Justice and Home Affairs and anyone interested in Community policy on Civil Justice. This discussion would give the public the opportunity to ask direct questions and for the Commission to find out what their expectations are towards Civil Justice.
On Saturday 18 October 2003, an open day event will be organised by the Hungarian Supreme Court. An opening ceremony, in the presence of the Hungarian Minister of Justice, will bring together speakers of the European Institutions and Hungarian Judicial Authorities. On this occasion, Representatives of the European Commission and the Council of Europe will illustrate on the spot the European achievements with relation to judicial co-operation and answer questions raised by visitors.
