Objectives
The 2014 EU Justice Scoreboard has revealed that the level of efficiency in national justice systems varies significantly between Member States. While some Member States show good performances in the civil justice area, others perform poorly. One of the reasons for this status quo concerns how national lawyers perform, especially using national and EU legal instruments in civil and commercial matters. The present project aims to bridge this gap by building a partnership between Universities and Bar Associations located in three poorly-performing Member States (Italy, Slovenia and Spain), and one which performs well (Germany). The main objective of this partnership will be that of providing lawyers transnational, practice-oriented, interactive and multi-lingual training on EU legal instruments free of charge, in particular on Regulation No 1215/2012 including its interplay with Regulation No 805/2004 concerning the European Enforcement Order and Regulation No 655/2014 establishing a European Account Preservation Order.

Activities
The main activity of the present project will be a series of initial training weekend seminars offered free of charge in more than one official EU language to small target groups of lawyers, domiciled in the Member States involved in the programme.
According to the results gained by the pilot project on European Judicial Training conducted by the Councils of Bars and Law Societies of Europe and the EIPA Luxembourg, the adopted approach will be practice-oriented.
The training will be offered by teaching teams of academics and practitioners, combining theoretical knowledge and practical skills, as recommended by the EU Communication COM (2011) 551 final. This method will ensure a smooth transition between acquisition of theoretical elements and building skills with a practical application in real national and cross-border working cases.

Type and number of persons benefiting from the project
Target group of the present project will be lawyers domiciled in the Member States involved.
Lawyers will be trained in weekend seminars aimed at up to 30 participants each. All in all, the seminars will offer c. 720 lawyers from Italy (the Member State of the applicant), Germany, Slovenia and Spain, initial training on the main topics in the area of EU civil justice.

Expected results
The project will benefit lawyers from Italy, Germany, Slovenia and Spain. Thanks to the transnational, practice-oriented, interactive and multi-lingual training offered free of charge, legal practitioners will gain minimum standards of knowledge on legal EU instruments, in particular on Regulation No 1215/2012 and Regulation No 655/2014. As a result, the trained lawyers will be able to:
(i) use EU legal instruments effectively not only in their native language or in English, but also in one of the languages of the Member States involved;
(ii) offer their clients more efficient legal advice, enhancing the rights protection of European citizens and, among all, the protection of consumers rights;
(iii) be more competitive in professional services in the EU legal context and market, favouring the free circulation of lawyers as recommended by the Directive No 5/1998.
From a long-term perspective, highly-qualified lawyers will contribute to the effectiveness of the European judicial system, increasing mutual trust among Member States with a positive impact on EU economic growth.

Type and number of outputs to be produced
The following project outputs are envisaged:
(i) Training material packages in five EU languages (Italian, German, Slovenian, Spanish and English) consisting of 8 case studies which will encompass the legal scenario, the suggested solution and methodological advice for using the case;
(ii) A virtual platform called European Civil Procedure for Lawyers online Platform (ECPLP);
(iii) Dissemination of the training material packages (including e-learning resources) to all interested Bar Associations.

Website:

http://www.europeancivilprocedureforlawyers.eu/