Professional training - references

Advanced Community Law Training Programme (Spring 2006)

An intensive training programme focused on the most recent developments in EU institutional reform, EC Competition Law, and Internal Market. Sessions take place on Saturday mornings in Brussels from 28th January to 17th June 2006. The format of the ACLT programme is primarily addressed to Brussels-based professionals and practitioners active in EU affairs. Through case studies and practical exercises designed by prominent experts, participants will be able to effectively get to grips with important changes in professional practice, while sharpening their analytical skills and know-how.

Main Features and Benefits

The main advantage I have gained is a well-structured, clear overview of certain competition law selected issues

The Advanced Community Law Training (ACLT) programme is the College of Europe’s answer to the need of Brussels-based professionals for a more interactive, practice-oriented, and flexible training approach.

Features

  • College of Europe’s characteristics of solid academic expertise and interactivity-prone pedagogical approach brought together for the first time in Brussels;
  • A dedicated extranet platform ensuring an ongoing and ubiquitous interaction point between experts and participants;
  • Top-calibre lecturers imparting highly valued expertise in key developments of EC law
Benefits
  • A small group of 16 to 24 handpicked participants facilitating thereby networking opportunities
  • A practice-driven approach reconstituting real-life professional situations through case studies and practical exercises
  • A unique atmosphere where:
    • European or International Officials formulating rules and standards may enter into constructive dialogue with their counterparts, as well as other daily EC law practitioners;
    • Corporate lawyers or Government Affairs executives may get an important insight into European Union servants‘ perspective on rules-making or rules enforcement;
    • Law firms lawyers may better understand prospective clients’ legal challenges
  • Alternating training sessions held at weekends but leaving sufficient room for enjoying spare time

Who Should Attend the ACLT Programme?

The information we received targeted my professional needs

The ACLT programme is by and large, but not exclusively, directed to lawyers with a minimum of 3 years of working experience who want to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to broaden their career path. More specifically, it is perfectly adapted to:

  • Law firms’ collaborators who would like to acquire further expertise to extend their clients base;
  • Corporate lawyers who want to keep in touch with the European legal environment;
  • Regulatory or Government Affairs executives in companies or professional associations who need to enter a new field of competences to fine-tune their monitoring or lobbying activities;
  • Newly appointed European or International officials who wish to gain a specific insight into quickly evolving legal issues.

Indicative Programme Contents

I have gained a good overview of the most recent developments in key areas of EU law

Module 1 - Institutional Developments

Session 1: Constitutional Treaty

  • New legal instruments
  • New architecture and decision-making procedure

Session 2: EC Judicial Architecture

  • The ECJ
  • The CFI
  • The “Judicial Panels”

Session 3: Access to Official Documents

  • Access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents
  • Access to other institutions or bodies’ documents

Session 4: Judicial Remedies

  • Remedies against Member States’ violation
  • Action for annulment
  • Extra-contractual liability

Module 2 - Internal Market

Session 1: Information Society Law

  • Regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services
  • Issues related to the processing of personal data and the privacy protection

Session 2: European Company Law

  • Types of legal commercial entities
  • Accounting requirements

Session 3: Network Industries Law

  • Trans-European energy networks
  • The transport sector

Session 4: Public Procurement

  • Procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts
  • Procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors

Session 5: Financial Services

  • Markets in financial instruments and publicly offered securities
  • Marketing of consumer financial services

Session 6: Intellectual Property Rights

  • Copyright issues
  • Designs and patents

Module 3 - Competition Law

Session 1: Enforcement of Articles 81 & 82

  • Implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty

Session 2: Horizontal Agreements

  • Horizontal cooperation agreements
  • Specialisation agreements, R&D agreements

Session 3: Vertical Restraints

  • Vertical agreements and concerted practices

Session 4: Mergers Control

  • Horizontal mergers and control of concentrations between undertakings
  • Cross border mergers and takeover bids

Session 5: State Aid

  • State aid to small and medium-sized enterprises
  • De minimis principle

Session 6: Regulatory Frameworks

  • Selection of National Regulatory Frameworks
  • Examples of International Cases

In addition to being indicative, this programme is also provisional and its definite form will eventually depend on the focus chosen by the lecturer responsible for the session.
The topics mentioned under the headings of sessions are intended to give prospective participants an indication of the themes potentially addressed, but do not entail any contractual obligation on our part as to the actual or eventual contents of the sessions.