Dear Friends  A new year is coming. Times, they are changing.However, our world has changed not always for the better.In Europe, today, we can feel that our hopes for a better future for everybody is further away than it was yesterday.We can also see a few dangers on the horizon.As magistrates – judges and prosecutors – it is our duty to sustain the Treaties, the Constitution and the Law that have been approved by the peoples of Europe.That means we have a commitment: to sustain the rights and guarantees of citizens.Sometimes we have been told that reality is more important than the law.It is our duty not to allow that this «reality», which nobody voted upon, may be used for annihilating the bases of a civilisation founded on the dignity of the human being.Nowadays, a decent life for everybody doesn’t consist only of giving them enough food and a roof.Even towards slaves, it was necessary to go further. Without eating and a few hours of sleep they could not labour so as to enrich their owners.Nowadays, It is also necessary to provide all citizens with the kind of life that can emerge according to the progress of the world.Only if we can think that we are able to live as our neighbour lives, can we be sure that our interpretation of the law accords to human rights.Only by respecting those circumstances, can we look at the other that lives by our side and see them as an equal.Dear Friends I wish you all the best for 2012Season’s greetings António Cluny