The European Union is an integrated economic and social area in which citizens and businesses are increasingly active across Member States’ borders. Whilst this brings great opportunities it also brings the risk of private and commercial cross border disputes, as well as potential exposure to cross border criminal activities.

The ability of individuals and organisations to exercise their rights and protect themselves within the European Union  may well therefore depend on whether or not they can obtain the legal advice and expertise they need relating to other Member States’ law or to EU law in general. Beyond these cross-border situations, lawyers may also use EU law to assist their clients in what appear to be entirely domestic situations (e.g. application of equal pay legislation, environmental cases etc.).

The European Commission set out in its 2011 Communication the ambition that over 700 000 legal practitioners should have taken part in at least one European training activity or exchange by 2020, through the use of all available resources at local, national and European level. Lawyers* are an important part of this target group.

The purpose of this questionnaire is to obtain an up-to-date qualitative and quantitative picture of the training that lawyers in European Member States currently receive in EU law in order to:

• Give visibility to existing training activities amongst lawyers, bars and law societies as well as European institutions
• Identify opportunities for exchange of ideas and best practices or for development of common materials
• Assess the need for further practical training initiatives
• Determine if there are gaps which can be filled by public policy action