Speaking to the Butterworths news service this week, Secretary General of the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union (CCBE), Jonathon Goldsmith warned that despite extensive preparation, acceding to the European Union is likely to prove a great shock for lawyers in the 10 countries waiting to do so.
Speaking with regard to the CCBE's role in assisting the pre-accession states to bring their social, economic, and legal systems up to EU standards, Mr Goldsmith explained that:
"We have worked hard letting them know of the importance of Directives relating to lawyers as their governments will have to adopt them by 1 May 2004. I don’t think it has properly hit them yet. Wherever you look there is material which affects the regulatory state of the profession. I assume it is a shock to join the EU."
He continued:
"It requires lawyers to take account of not just national laws but about EU laws too. We are trying to ensure accession bars realise that they need to be observing this. This is our role."
The CCBE chief went on to explain to Butterworths that a number of new legislative measures likely to affect lawyers in the European Union will need to be absorbed by the legal communities in the ten new member states.
These will include the Framework Services Directive (which will set out how services should be offered within the EU), and the result of a currently ongoing dispute over privilege for in-house lawyers.
According to Mr Goldsmith, the Bars of seven of the ten accession countries have already been accepted as members of the CCBE. Applications from Malta and Lithuania have reportedly been received, and Latvia's application is pending.
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