BUREAU OF THE
CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN PROSECUTORS
(CCPE-BU)
Report of the 10th meeting
Bordeaux, 2 July 2009
Secretariat memorandum, prepared by the
Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs
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LIST OF THE MAIN DECISIONS TAKEN BY THE BUREAU The CCPE-BU: § noted that the meeting of the working party of the CCPE will take place in Strasbourg from 29 to 30 September in order to discuss the working programme for 2010; § noted that the joint CCPE – CCJE plenary meeting will take place from 18 to 20 November in Ljubljana, Slovenia within the framework of the Slovenian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers; § learned with satisfaction that the CDPC forwarded the CCPE Opinion N°2 (2008) on “Alternatives to prosecution” and the Opinion N°3 on the “Role of prosecution services outside the Criminal Law field” with comments to the Committee of Ministers which took note; § noted that the Committee of Ministers requested the CDCJ to make proposals on a follow-up to the Opinion N°3 on the “Role of prosecution services outside the Criminal Law field”, in particular for the CDCJ to consider drafting common European principles on, notably, the status, powers, and practice of public prosecutors outside the criminal law field; § asked Mr Harald Range (Germany) to attend the 2nd meeting of the Group of Specialists on child-friendly justice (CJ-S-CH) to take place in Strasbourg from 28 to 30 September and asked Mr Range to report to the CCPE-GT the outcomes of this meeting in order to harmonise the work of the respective groups in this area; § instructed the secretariat research into the case law of the ECHR related to the relationships between prosecutors and prison administration and in the light of Recommendation Rec(2006)2 on the European Prison Rules with a view to drafting an opinion at a later date; § also instructed the secretariat to establish contact with the secretariat of the CPT in order to invite them to make a presentation on the role of prosecutors in the administration of prisons at the next plenary meeting from 18 to 20 November 2009; § took note of the various proposals made by the Russian delegation on how to make the work of the CCPE more visible in the Council of Europe member States; § took note of the initiative by the Lisbon Network and the Economic Crime Division to institutionalise the training of judges and prosecutors on cybercrime issues and noted that the CCPE-GT will be consulted on a final version of the concept paper; § instructed the Secretariat to consider the possibility of drafting a text containing cooperation modalities with other bodies of the Council of Europe; § took note of the absence, for professional reasons, of Mrs Raja Toiviainen (Finland) to the meeting of the CCPE-GT in September. |
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The Bureau of the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors (CCPE‑BU) held its 9th meeting in Bordeaux, in the afternoon of 2 July 2009, with Mr Olivier De Baynast (France) as chair. The President also allowed other members of the CCPE-GT non-members of the Bureau to attend the meeting, therefore the Russian delegation participated in the debate of the Bureau.
2. The agenda and list of participants appear in Appendix I and II.
II. .... COMMUNICATION BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE CCPE, MEMBERS OF THE BUREAU AND THE SECRETARIAT; DISCUSSION OF THE FUTURE WORK OF THE CCPE; PREPARATION OF THE 5th CCPE-GT MEETING AND CCPE – CCJE JOINT PLENARY MEETING
3. Mr Olivier De Baynast mentioned with satisfaction that the joint project regarding the drafting of an opinion on the relationships between judges and prosecutors was successfully carried out and thanked all members for their active participation at the Conference.
4. The CCPE now has to focus on the working programme for 2010 which will be discussed in details during the CCPE-GT meeting in Strasbourg, 29 – 30 September 2009 as well as the plenary meeting to be jointly organised with the CCJE in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 18 to 20 November.
5. Mrs Anna Capello, the Secretary of the CCPE informed the members about the recent developments concerning the Opinions No.2 and No.3, namely that the CDPC forwarded them with comments to the Committee of Ministers which took note of them and encouraged their wide dissemination among relevant prosecuting authorities in the member States.
6. As regards the Opinion No.2 on “alternatives to prosecution”, the CDPC mentioned their current work on a draft Recommendation on rules for agencies providing probation and aftercare to offenders which is closely related to alternatives to prosecution and the agencies which supervise their implementation. In this respect, for the future work the CCPE and the CDPC should cooperate when examining national legislation and practices in the Council of Europe member States related to types of crime and types of offenders for which alternatives to prosecution may be applied. Nevertheless, the CDPC considers that a decision on whether or not there is a need for developing binding or non-binding instruments on alternatives to prosecution is premature.
7. As for the Opinion No.3 on “the role of prosecution services outside the criminal field”, Mrs Capello underlined that the CDPC in their comments to the Committee of Ministers mentioned that this topic falls outside its competence and that it is more appropriate for the CDCJ to examine this opinion. Therefore the deputies agreed to forward the opinion to the CDCJ with a request to make proposals on a follow-up to be given, in particular the proposal to draft common European principles on the status, powers, and practice of public prosecutors outside the criminal law field. It was agreed that the CDCJ will put this question on the agenda of their plenary meeting and will communicate the feedback to the CCPE. The CCPE Secretariat, offered its assistance in finding a cost-less solution for the drafting of a binding legal instrument by the CDCJ.
8. Mrs Capello also informed the Bureau members about the 2nd meeting of the Group of Specialists on child-friendly justice (CJ-S-CH) to be held in Strasbourg from 28 to 30 September. In this regard, the CCPE Bureau asked Mr Range (Germany) to take part in the event and to represent the CCPE. The aim of his participation is to coordinate future work of the CCPE regarding public policies in the field of juvenile justice. Based on the information gathered and the existing documents within the Council of Europe in this field, in particular the Resolution No.2 on child-friendly justice adopted by the 28th Conference of European Ministers of Justice, Mr Range will be asked to provide a questionnaire in view of the drafting of the future CCPE Opinion.
9. Another part of the CCPE programme for 2010 will concern the relationships between prosecutors and the prison administration in the light of the Recommendation Rec(2006)2 on the European Prison Rules. The CCPE Secretariat made preliminary contacts with the CPT Secretariat in order for them to prepare a presentation on the role of prosecutors in the administration of prisons at the next working group meeting. The CCPE also asked the Secretariat research the case law of the ECHR on this subject with a view to prepare a questionnaire concerning the role of prosecutors in prison administration.
III. SERIES OF PROPOSALS FROM THE RUSSIAN DELEGATION ON HOW TO MAKE VISIBILE THE WORK OF THE CCPE AND DISSEMINATION OF THE OPINIONS
10. Mr Zvyagintsev (Russian Federation) made a series of proposals on how to make good use of the three adopted Opinions. He first mentioned the dissemination of the Opinions to the relevant authorities, prosecution services as well as international bodies. Secondly, member States should be encouraged to implement the recommendations formulated in the CCPE Opinions.
11. As concerns dissemination of the CCPE Opinions, each member should make the texts available to the prosecution services of its own country (for example, by sending the texts translated into the national language to the national association of prosecutors and/or publish them on the website of the prosecution services or any other relevant national authority). Opinions translated into various languages can then be published on the CCPE website.
12. Mr Zvyagintsev mentioned that the Russian authorities are in process of finishing the translation of the Opinion No. 3 on “the role of prosecution services outside the criminal field”. The Opinions are published in the international cooperation section of the website of General Prokuratura of the Russian Federation as well as in the periodical “Legitimacy” edited by the General Prokuratura. Copies of the Opinions are sent to the Academy of science and various universities.[1]
13. Regarding the dissemination of the Opinions within the international community, suggestion is made to the Chair to forward them or the information concerning their drafting to the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) as well as Coordinative Council of General Prosecutors of CIS.
14. When it comes to the implementation of the recommendations formulated in the Opinions, the Committee of Ministers should make more favorable decisions and insist on their implementation in the member States. In this case the CCPE will increase its role. As a good example of the use of the Opinions of the CCPE is the judgment delivered by the European Court of Human Rights in May 2009, in the Case Batsanina v. Russia where the Opinion No.3 was extensively quoted.
IV. COOPERATION WITH OTHER COUNCIL OF EUROPE BODIES
15. Regarding the cooperation with other Council of Europe bodies, Mrs Ana Rusu, Co-Secretary of the CCPE, informed the Bureau members about the current joint work between the Lisbon Network and the Council of Europe’s Economic Crimes Division concerning the institutionalisation of the cybercrime training for judges and prosecutors. For this purpose, a Working Group has been set up with representatives from the Judicial Training Institutions from 11 countries (Belgium, Croatia, France, Georgia, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Spain and FYROM). They provided replies to a questionnaire on the basis of which the concept paper for the training will be drafted. The idea is to specify the approach to training and type of training to be provided to judges and prosecutors, to indicate training materials and to give examples from these countries as to how the concept could be implemented in practice. A meeting of this working group will take place in Strasbourg, 3 – 4 September 2009. The CCPE will be asked to give its opinion on the final version of the concept training paper. The role of the Lisbon Network will be to promote the concept throughout Europe and to regularly assess the progress made in the implementation of the concept.
16. Mr Zvyagintsev mentioned that an important issue related to the visibility of the work of the CCPE is its relationship with other bodies of the Council of Europe such as the Venice Commission. The point could be discussed in more details at the plenary meeting.
VI. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
17. Mrs Raja Toiviainen (Finland) informed the Bureau that due to a professional commitment, she will not be able to attend the working group meeting in September 29 – 30.
Appendix I
1. Opening of the meeting
2. Adoption of the agenda
3. Communication by the President, members of the Bureau and the Secretariat
4. Discussion of the future work of the CCPE
§ public policies in the field of juvenile justice
§ relationships between prosecutors and the prison administrations in the light of Recommendation Rec(2006)2 on the European Prison Rules
§ celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Recommendation (2000)19
5. Preparation of the 5th meeting of the CCPE-GT, Strasbourg, 28 – 30 September 2009
6. State of preparation of the joint CCJE-CCPE plenary meeting to be held from 18 to 20 November 2009 in Ljubljana, Slovenia
7. Cooperation with other Council of Europe bodies
8. Any other business
Appendix II
List of Participants
FINLAND / FINLANDE
Ms Raija TOIVIAINEN, State Prosecutor, Head of the International Unit, Po Box 333, Albertinkatu 25a, FIN - 00181 HELSINKI
Tel: + 358 10 3620 835
Fax: + 358 10 3620 888
E-mail: [email protected]
FRANCE
(Chair/Président CCPE)
M. Olivier de BAYNAST, Procureur Général près de la Cour d’Appel d’Amiens, Palais de justice, 14 rue Robert de Luzarches, F - 80027 AMIENS CEDEX 01
Tel:+ 33 3 22 82 35 39
Fax: + 33 3 22 91 21 61
E-mail :olivier.de-baynast@justice.fr
IRELAND / Irlande
M. Peter McCORMICK, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutors
14-16 Upper Merrion Street, DUBLIN 2
Tel:+ 353 (0) 1 678 9222
Fax :+ 353 (0) 1 661 0915
E-mail: [email protected]
Portugal
(Vice-Chair/Vice-Président CCPE)
M. João Manuel DA SILVA MIGUEL, Procureur Général Adjoint, Procuradoria-Geral da República, Rua da Escola Politécnica 140, P - 1269-269 LISBOA Codex
Tel: + 351 21 392 1900 / 1966
Fax:+ 351 21 397 5255
E-mail: [email protected]
CCPE-GT
Russian Federation/ Fédération de Russie
Mr Alexander Grigorievich ZVYAGINTSEV, Deputy Prosecutor General, Office of the Prosecutor General, Ul. Bolshaya Dmitrovka 15A, 125993 GSP-3 MOSCOW
Tel: +7 (495) 292 92 74; Fax: + +7 (495) 292 3510; E-mail: [email protected]
SECRETARIAT OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE
SECRETARIAT DU CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE
Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs, Justice Division /
Direction Générale des Droits de l’Homme et des Affaires Juridiques, Division de la Justice
Anna CAPELLO, Head of Justice, Chef de la Division
Ana RUSU, Co-Secretary of the CCPE / Co-Secrétaire du CCPE
Jean-Pierre GEILLER, Documentation
Emily WALKER, Assistant / Assistante
[1] For information, in May 2009, Moscow hosted the annual meeting of Prosecutors General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member States where the Russian authorities put at the disposal of the participants the text of the Opinion No.3 in three languages (English, French and Russian).