Justice, fundamental rights and equality : Building a European area of justice

In a Europe of open borders, more and more people live, work, study and do business in other European Union (EU) countries. The EU makes it easier for citizens to exercise their rights by building a genuine European area of justice. The EU strives to strengthen mutual trust between courts and administrations of EU countries, to have them mutually recognise each other's judicial decisions, to harmonise justice rules and minimum standards across the EU and to facilitate access to justice on equal terms in all countries. In addition, the EU is working to enable people and businesses to take full advantage of its single market. This brochure is part of a series that explains what the EU does in different policy areas, why the EU is involved and what the results are