Legal Affairs

Safeguarding European law and protecting the rights of Europeans

Its other responsibilities include the Statute for Members and Staff Regulations, which looks at privileges and immunities along with the verification of Members' credentials, among other things. The committee also adopts measures relating to judicial and administrative cooperation in civil matters, deals with environmental liability and sanctions against environmental crime and ensures the European Parliament‘s rights and prerogatives are protected from a legal standpoint.

When it comes to intellectual property, the committee is pushing hard to ensure changes to the EU's trademark rules, trade secrets and the future of copyright meet the needs of European businesses and citizens. As far as company law is concerned, its top priority is ensuring new insolvency rules hold up to scrutiny, and new proposals on single-member private limited companies support Europe’s growing number of SMEs.

At the same time, the committee is maintaining its focus on citizens, families and businesses with the impending review of private international laws around matrimonial matters and matters of parental responsibility (including child abduction), and the small claims procedure.

Lastly, the committee helps Parliament form an opinion on a number of very technical issues around legislation, input from national Parliaments and the defence of Parliament's interests in court.