Composition of ELF Network
ELF, which receives an operating grant from the European Union (EU) as from 1st January 2022, is a network composed of 27 members, of which 26 are national and local bars (representing a total of 19 EU Member States) and one is an EU-wide organisation of bars (the CCBE). The current members of the network per EU Member State appear in the Map section.
Activities of the network
ELF’s activities are carried out through the implementation of projects which can be divided into two blocks: a) EU projects and b) external projects (outside the EU and, therefore, out of the scope of the operating grant).
The EU projects are divided into three areas of activities:
Training activities: ELF organises training of lawyers in various areas of EU law, including an exchange of lawyers (where lawyers from EU Member States are sent to law firms in other Member States), and training courses on fundamental rights (e.g. procedural rights, data protection, immigration and asylum), and other areas of EU law such as EU civil law, anti-money laundering/counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF), etc. The ELF has been acting as a sort of lawyers’ counterpart to the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), in line with Recommendation 14 of the EC’s Study on the state of play of lawyers’ training in EU Law. By contributing to training lawyers in EU law, ELF helps lawyers to be appropriately trained on the application of EU law at national level and to increase their cross-border network capacities, while guaranteeing that citizens are better represented to make full use of their rights within the EU.
e-justice activities: ELF is the coordinator of the EU-funded Artificial Intelligence for Lawyers project (2020-2022), which aims to develop a guide on the use of AI by lawyers and law firms in the EU. ELF has also participated in various e-justice projects since its establishment in 2014, including the European Training Platform and Find-A-Lawyer (FAL) 2 and 3, Me-CODEX, Me-CODEX 2, and Evidence 2e-CODEX.
Research in various areas of EU Law: ELF is active in research activities on EU substantive law topics that have a positive impact on access to justice. Considerable work has been undertaken in the field of the rights of persons suspected or accused of crime, on the correct and consistent implementation at national level of the European Arrest Warrant, and on Anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing.
Co-funded by the European Union