Post your questions for Jiří Pospíšil

Jiří Pospíšil, Czech Minister of Justice, will answer your questions online in the European chat today at 3 p.m. You can start posting your questions concerning justice and the EU several hours in advance. After the chat is closed, the most interesting questions and answers from both language versions will be published in the ’News and Documents’ section on www.eu2009.cz. The chat is conducted simultaneously in two language versions – in Czech for the local public and in English for readers abroad. Czech and English questions appear only in their respective language versions. To read all the questions, open both chat versions

Questions and Answers

J. Pold, 25. 2. 2009, 13:19
I heard about the "European Private Company" May I ask how will this type of company work in the EU Member States? Thank you.

responded to, 25. 2. 2009, 16:10
The proposal for a Regulation on the Statute for a European Private Company was designed to serve for the purposes of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially to encourage their competitiveness and commercial activities in other Member States, which is particularly important in the times of a financial crisis. The proposal for a Statute for an SPE is adapted to the specific needs of SMEs. It allows entrepreneurs to set up an SPE following the same simple and flexible company law provisions across the Member States. Thank you for all your questions and for your time. Have a nice afternoon.

G. Craig, 25. 2. 2009, 13:09
Mr. Pospisil, I am interested in the Justice and Home Affairs Council which is held this week in Brussels. Which issues are going to be discussed there by Ministers of Justice?

responded to, 25. 2. 2009, 16:05
The Justice Ministers will deal with the following topics on Friday 27 February: Czech initiative for a Council Framework Decision on prevention and settlement of conflicts of jurisdiction in criminal proceedings; Implementation of the European e-Justice Action Plan; Negotiating mandate for a mutual legal assistance agreement between the European Union and Japan and finally the Proposal for a Directive of the EP and of the Council amending Directive 2005/35/EC on ship-source pollution.

H. Lofler, 25. 2. 2009, 12:40
Mr Minister, do you think that the Lisbon Treaty can lead to new lawsuits against the Czech Republic with regard to the Benes decrees?

responded to, 25. 2. 2009, 16:00
I believe not. I subscribe to the conclusions of the legal analyses performed by government experts that unequivocally consider such interpretation incorrect.

Geronimo, 25. 2. 2009, 12:13
Hello. As Justice should be politically independent, why are there political Ministers of Justice? Couldn't the work of your Ministry be done for example by a professional organization of judges? Does every EU country actually have a Minister/Secretary of Justice?

responded to, 25. 2. 2009, 15:48
Ministries do not interfere politically with justice. A politician is responsible for the administration of public finances while a judge is not. As opposed to a judge, a politician is accountable to the Parliament for a purposeful allocation of funds from the state budget and for due administration of the judicial system. Each country has a government member responsible for the area of justice. The model applied in the Czech Republic is common also in other EU countries.

Lukas, 25. 2. 2009, 12:07
Dear Mr. Posipisil, are there any plans for the near future to introduce a unified Civil Code/Business Code/Criminal Code for the whole EU? With all the freedoms of movement of goods, moneys, people, etc. it would seem to be the next logical step of integration, I think. Would it be technically possible to have the same laws in all member countries?

responded to, 25. 2. 2009, 15:39
Some people might support this idea but the Czech Presidency does not intend to take steps in this direction. And to answer your question, I personally do not think that in the near future a unified Civil Code/Business Code/Criminal Code might be introduced.

Benoit Cusin (Agence Europe), 25. 2. 2009, 11:53
Do you consider that the proposal for a council framework Decision on certain procedural rights in criminal proceedings throughout the European Union is an important tool? If so, do you intend to initiate again a negociation on this text? When?

responded to, 25. 2. 2009, 15:32
We are aware of the importance of this proposal. We are not planning any negotiations under the Czech Presidency as it is generally known that this initiative will be on the agenda of the Swedish Presidency.

Michael, 25. 2. 2009, 11:52
Mr. Minister, I've read about the e-Justice system that it should provide citizens and institutions access to legal information and court cases from abroad. How will it work? Will such information will available to everyone? And how does the information exchange work now? Can I somehow get information about foreign trials even today?

responded to, 25. 2. 2009, 15:27
Yes, this system is called the "European e-Justice portal". It is possible to say that this portal will be the trademark of European e-Justice for the general public. In the future, it should become a uniform access point to European and national legislation for citizens and legal entities, legal professionals and judicial authorities in the Member States. It will be available for everyone. Above all, we can expect the Internet portal to increase the efficiency of cross-border legal proceedings and facilitate access to legal information from other Member States. We are planning to launch the first version of the portal already in December 2009.

Benoit Cusin, 25. 2. 2009, 11:44
Minister, you support the facilitation of efficient use of videoconferencing in cross-border legal proceedings. Will this approach be developped and legally binding for the 27 Member states? How will you resolve the fact that in some countries, there is a lack of equipement (for example some magistrates do not have any computer in their office)?

responded to, 25. 2. 2009, 15:19
Good afternoon to everybody. Your information is correct, promoting and facilitating the use of cross-border videoconferencing is one of the areas in focus of the Czech Presidency. As regards the legal basis of videoconferencing, our initial aim should rather be to make better use of the current legislation that gives enough room for the use of this technology than to introduce new legal instruments. Creating new European legislation binding for all the 27 Member States would be a long-term process. As regards the final part of your question, I would like to refer to research that has been performed by the Council Working Party on Legal Data Processing that showed that the overall ability of the Member States to introduce this technology is rather high and that the much feared technical issues can be overcome relatively easily, mainly by using uniform standards. Of course there are differences between the Member States but the situation is the same in all the aspcects of e-Justice; it must not prevent us from developing this field further.