After building the internal market, the European Union has succeeded in offering its citizens an area of free movement.

This freedom means that eight million European citizens reside today in a member state other than their home country, either to study, work, accompany their spouse or spend their retirement. There are also between 50,000 and 100,000 transnational inheritances every year and 170,000 divorces between spouses with different nationalities.

Yet, while Europe’s physical borders have been abolished, legal borders all too often remain in place. And citizens fail to understand why their rights are left behind in a context of increasing mobility across Europe. It is high time for the famous reflection by Blaise Pascal (“A strange justice that is bounded by a river! Truth on this side of the Pyrenees, error on the other side…”) to become a thing of the past…

We must build a genuine European judicial area where all citizens are able to assert their rights, irrespective of the member state where they reside. This is a fundamental element of the construction of European citizenship, which is one of my major objectives.

The Tampere European Council in 1999 made the mutual recognition of court decisions and of legal acts the keystone of this European judicial area.

This principle of mutual recognition may not reside solely in the existence of a high degree of mutual confidence between member states. Only quality national judicial systems can nurture such trust. This great edifice connecting national rights in Europe must also respect the history and traditions of the different judicial systems in Europe.

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In the field of civil justice, family law is a priority.

At the top of my mind is the issue of binational divorce.

Conflicts of law concerning child custody have been settled and the Commission’s proposal to improve recovery of maintenance obligations is also undergoing final adoption.

But the law applicable to binational divorce is still too often a source of conflicts of jurisdiction. Adoption of the ‘Rome III’ proposal for a regulation would give divorcing couples the possibility to choose by common agreement the law applicable to their case.

Considerable progress is also needed on the division of estates in cases of separation.

On the second big issue in family law, namely transnational inheritances, no legislative instrument exists for now. That is why I will present, early in 2009, detailed proposals for the development of a European certificate of inheritance. Every European citizen would thus be able to prove his or her entitlement as heir in all the member states, regardless of the location of the property inherited. I will also start up reflection on the creation of a European register of wills, building on the interconnection of national registers put in place by European solicitors.

Recognition and mutual confidence are also the cornerstones of justice in commercial law.

In this area, the creation of the European enforcement order, the European order for payment procedure, which will come into force at the end of 2008, and the regulation enabling all European citizens to prove a claim in bankruptcy all represent significant progress in the internal market.

The ultimate aim of these major European advances for civil and commercial law is the abolition of the exequatur for court decisions. Over and above that, we must engage in general reflection on the direct recognition of authentic instruments from each member state in the other member states. A green paper to that effect will be drawn up in 2009.

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We will be able to bring these projects to successful conclusion by using three levers, which all have in common the concepts of dialogue and partnership.

First, the lever of the European Judicial Network. I have proposed its enlargement beyond judges to encompass all legal professions.

Second, the lever of e-Justice. An internet portal, planned for next year, will give all European citizens access to information on the different national courts and enable them to participate in direct contacts using video conferences. Judges will also benefit from the placing of judgements online on this portal.

Third, we must strengthen the lever of European training for the legal professions, by ensuring that initiatives already launched for the training of judges are also extended to lawyers.

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On the basis of my experience as transport commissioner, where I was able to take forward many issues thanks to the contributions of all stakeholders, I will be constantly attentive to the contributions of professionals from the world of justice.

With their practical, day-in-day-out knowledge of the problems encountered by citizens seeking justice, they will help me bring about progress on access for all Europeans to justice throughout the European Union, an indispensable condition for a European citizenship to which we all aspire.

(*) Jacques Barrot is vice-president of the European Commission responsible for justice, freedom and security