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For a long time we have not been - nor should we any longer
be - national lawyers; on the contrary, European lawyers that we are from now on, more than
ever must be conscious of being also lawyers of the world, lawyers without frontiers. Whatever our nationality, whatever our language, whatever our legal system, whatever our field of activity, whatever our speciality, whatever our style of practice, what unites us is infinitely more important than what divides us. As European lawyers, we are the protectors of democracy, the guardians of the law, the harbingers of justice, the defenders of man, the carriers of the spiritual values and morals on which Europe is founded, through which its survival is assured and its future is guaranteed. Thus, like Caesar's wife, we must be above suspicion, this condition is the sine qua non to preserve our independence and our professional confidentiality, these pillars of the legal profession that were not invented for personal gain, but, on the contrary, which constitute the supreme guarantee to all those who entrust us to watch over their interests. The good fortune of the States which comprise Europe lies in the fact that this is transcendent and allows them to escape from their national ills. The good fortune of the lawyers who comprise the European Bar lies in the fact that this is transcendent and also allows them to escape from their national ills. Weakness, division, archaism, fear, Malthusianism, all constitute difficulties that we are incapable of resolving in our respective countries and that the union will help us, with its natural strength but also with the strength of its conditions, to overcome and defeat. May the harmony of our skills and our consciences carry to the utmost those most noble missions which befall us by Nature and by Law: to advise and defend our brothers. Long live the European Bars Federation! Joseph VAN DER PERRE Präsident Verband Europäischer Rechtsanwaltskammern |