The convention on the future of europe and
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- 4 - 2002
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We are grateful to decision-makers in the new ERA member states for their interest and support. Let me at this stage pay a special tribute to the Irish who were the first to come on board in 2000, when the then Attorney General and now Minister for Justice Michael McDowell decided that it would be good to join. This was a tricky question because inviting a country to become a patron of the ERA is not just about convincing decision-makers of the benefits of accession. It also poses a problem similar to the attempt to invite prestigious speakers to a conference - even when they are interested in the subject matter they still ask you "And who else is coming?'. But in the case of Irish accession to the ERA Ireland was not afraid to take the lead and to set a precedent - an especially warm welcome to the Irish delegation led by Minister McDowell3 and Chief Justice Ronan Keane. Representation of old and new EU member states on the ERA's Governing Board and participation in decision-making there will change, or has already changed,the Academy's character and profile. We stand ready to help each of the old and new members to train their judiciaries, to organise study visits or to open a platform for informal discussion of initiatives, projects or problems in the context of legal policy and European integration. A distinguished member of our Board of Trustees subcommittee on programmes recently suggested that the ERA should offer one-month training courses for future judges and, where appropriate, prosecutors, on Community law and judicial cooperation. Such courses should be held in English to familiarise these young members of the judiciaries with the future main working languageof the enlarged Union (for UK and Irish judges it ought to be French of course), and it would be ideal if these courses were attended by judges or prosecutors from a variety of member states. This is one of many ideas we have for the future. We are also planning to put together a consistent curriculum in a number of special areas of European law, legal texts, case-law, case-studies and other papers, on the basis of what we have done in the past and which will be updated continuously.This will very much facilitate the organisation of ad-hoc seminars on request and provide an excellent basis for documentation in open seminars on the topics in question. However, the greatest challenge and task ahead will be eastern enlargement of the European Union. In less than 18 months, ten new member states will have to apply the acquis, albeit moderated by some transition arrangements; and although there has already been a lot of training and preparation in these countries, their legal professions, their judiciaries and administrations will feel a very strong need and motivation for further training now that the date for accession has been set officially. It will not be possible for a single institute to cover this forthcoming need but once again the ERA will stand ready to assist the countries of Central and Eastern Europe to conduct
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