The rule of law is a value which is directly related to success in every area of public life and building a strong community of citizens. This was said by Vice President Margarita Popova, who yesterday opened in Trier, Germany, a two-day conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Academy of European Law.
Addressing participants in the event, the Vice President called for strengthening the relations between the EU and its institutions with EU citizens. “Unified legislation in certain legal areas, creating institutions, to ensure compliance with it, creating a prosecution and court to whom we can turn when the interests of the European Union and our rights are violated, predictable protection of victims of crime - this are efforts that the Union should support politically, to improve the lives of European citizens, to enable it to contribute to the integration of Europe,” Vice President Popova said.
Conference participants expressed concern about the effects of the economic crisis on the stability of the European Union. Vice President Popova emphasised the importance of the fight against corruption and organized crime in overcoming the crisis. In her speech she said that “groups with a European genesis and those outside the EU build international criminal contacts and economic crimes by attacking the social structures of the Union”. “Corruption has become the most tempting leitmotif of the modern world,” she said. In her words, the path to a stronger Europe passes through common efforts for the development and application of European criminal policy, which is able to maintain financial security and stability in the EU through the “protection of budgetary and financial discipline, order and responsibility”.
Among the participants in the forum are Vice-Presidents of the European Commission Viviane Reding and Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, former Commission President Jacques Santer, President of the European Court of Justice Vassilios Skouris, the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos P. Diamandouros, MEPs, constitutional judges, professors at universities, diplomats and judges.
The EU is the most modern European project and together we should apply our efforts to emerge from the crisis in a sustainable manner, European Commission Vice President Almunia told the forum.
European Commission Vice President Viviane Reding, “the court is at the centre of EU policies” and the judge is no longer a national but a European magistrate. “His independence is important for the EU, as all European citizens must be assured that their every dispute anywhere in the EU will be resolved fairly,” Commissioner Reding said. "Respect for the rule of law has nothing to do with political struggles, because our values have no political dimension,” she said, and emphasised that effective justice is directly related to economic growth. “Inefficiencies even in the judicial system can cause damage throughout the internal market of the EU,” EC Vice President Reding said.