At present, the international and Community obligations governing the cross-border right to legal aid on the same basis as host state nationals are a confusing patchwork that leaves the citizen in considerable doubt as to his rights. Information campaigns are generally the responsibility of individuals to be better informed than public bodies and public servants who play a role in the orientation. The Commission has put in place training measures, particularly for customs officers at the EU`s external borders. Similar training could be considered for civil servants who deal with legal aid schemes. The 1980 Hague Convention on International Access to Justice is clear, but has only been ratified by a minority of Member States. The scope of the European Convention on Human Rights is unclear as to its impact on the obligation of States Parties to grant legal aid. The obligations under Article 12 of the treaty apply uniformly, but are not clearly defined. The fact that they must be inferred from the case law makes them inaccessible to the citizen. However, it appears that this agreement is relatively little used. This under-utilization seems to reflect a lack of knowledge, both about the existence of a right to legal aid abroad [9] and about the mechanism put in place by the convention. It also appears that the central authorities are not sufficiently informed of the legislation in other states and of any possible changes. For provisional advice, he may also wish to find in his country of origin a lawyer who has some knowledge of the law and legal order of the country of law, who speaks the language of that country and can help him to contact a lawyer in the host country. The directive provides for two standard forms, one for applications for legal aid and the other for the transmission of applications for legal aid.

Therefore, an applicant residing in a high-cost country whose resources meet the financial criteria of the state in which he resides, but who is above the ceiling of the (cheap) state in which the proceedings are to take place, is therefore not entitled to legal aid. It is clear from the above that, in some states, the conciliator of cross-border disputes simply falls between two chairs; he is not entitled to legal aid in the home or host state. Community support could be a powerful incentive for young people. It would encourage young "bi-national" lawyers to move in this way and not in the traditional way of business lawyer networks. The inadequacy or lack of compensation for lawyers appointed in some Member States in the context of legal aid can only have a negative impact on the quality of the work done. - the provision of free or inexpensive legal assistance or legal representation by a lawyer; It should be noted that, in most Member States, legal aid can be obtained for all jurisdictions, be they civil, commercial, administrative or criminal. However, some states exclude legal aid in certain jurisdictions, for example. B administrative tribunals, or with respect to certain types of remedies, such as defamation.B. In response to the need for greater awareness of how individuals are having difficulties in exercising their rights in the internal market, a guide entitled "Enforcing your rights in the European internal market" has been drafted.

This guide was developed by the "Dialogue with Citizens and Businesses" initiative and describes in simple terms the different remedies, both at national and European level, including legal aid. In the context of any reflection on the problems of cross-border litigation in obtaining legal aid, it would be inactive to ignore the fact that some Member States have found that an effective legal aid system is costly and have therefore experimented with alternative means to ensure that justice is affordable.