European citizens want to live and work in an open, prosperous and safe Europe. The EU’s agenda in the area of justice is playing an ever increasing role in delivering on the Lisbon treaty’s key objectives.
The Latvian EU council presidency will continue the ongoing work towards a fully functioning common European area of justice. In particular, we will focus on the protection of personal data and on the protection of the EU’s financial interests. We will also invest our efforts to support measures that will improve the business environment in the EU and we will strive to ensure a high level of fundamental rights protection in criminal proceedings.
European legislators must address challenges in the various areas of our everyday life. Despite the vast amount of information that is available to us, we should not forget that the central point of reference for our legislative work is the human being.
Personal data protection is key to a person’s privacy. In order to safeguard this fundamental freedom, we need effective tools. Therefore, we have set the data protection reform as the main priority of the Latvian presidency in the field of justice.
During the next six months, together with the other member states and the European parliament, we will seek solutions to face the rapidly changing world of technological progress and globalisation to safeguard our personal data.
"It is crucial to aim for a clear and practically applicable data protection framework that could be consistently applied across the EU"
We are aware that achieving substantial progress on the data protection package will be a challenge. The ambition of the Latvian presidency is to reach an agreement within the council, which would form the basis for the discussions with parliament. I believe that this is a reasonable goal. It is crucial to aim for a clear and practically applicable data protection framework that could be consistently applied across the EU.
We will also devote particular attention to the regulatory framework for the exchange of personal data with third countries as regards law enforcement and prevention of serious crime.
In the area of criminal justice, we will focus on the protection of the EU’s financial interests and on the procedural rights package. We want to achieve significant progress on the draft legislation on the European public prosecutor’s office and on the reform of Eurojust - the EU agency that deals with judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
We have to find the right balance between effectively fighting against crime and safeguarding the fundamental rights of our citizens. I am convinced that together we will achieve our goal.
Another key focus of our presidency is on the facilitation of the business environment throughout the EU. While this area is essentially in the competence of my colleagues responsible for economics and finance, I believe that the justice sector can contribute too.
In the current economic and financial circumstances, the EU has to find and implement all the necessary tools that can help it become more competitive. We will therefore focus on the legislation that is currently on the table regarding intellectual property rights and company law. In the field of intellectual property rights, we will continue the revision of the trademark system and work on the protection of trade secrets.
"In the current economic and financial circumstances, the EU has to find and implement all the necessary tools that can help the EU become more competitive"
We will also continue working on several legislative proposals in the area of company law, such as the directive on shareholders rights and the directive on single-member private limited liability companies. We will also continue the ongoing work on the proposed common European sales law.
The programme of the Latvian presidency will be officially published at the start of January. However, one has to keep in mind that the developments in the EU or globally may introduce significant changes to our common agenda.
I want to conclude by affirming that Latvians have diligently carried out the preparatory work ahead of the EU council presidency. We therefore look forward to undertaking the challenging and important task of carrying the EU agenda on justice forward.
While taking full account of the diversity of our legal systems and traditions throughout the EU, we will invest all our efforts in facilitating the work of the EU legislators. The aim is more justice for our citizens, a better protection of the EU’s financial interests and generally a significant progress in the European area of freedom, security and justice.