Strasbourg, 15 October 2010

CEPEJ-BU(2010)2

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE

(CEPEJ)

16th meeting of the Bureau

Strasbourg, 29 September 2010

MEETING REPORT

Report prepared by the Secretariat

Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs


1.     The Bureau of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) held its 16th meeting in Strasbourg on 29 September 2010, with Mr Fausto de SANTIS (Italy), President of the CEPEJ, in the chair.

2.     The meeting was also attended by the following Bureau members:

§  Mr John STACEY (United Kingdom), Vice-President of the CEPEJ;

§  Mr Georg STAWA (Austria).

Ms Elsa GARCIA MALTRAS de BLAS (Spain) was apologized.

3.     The agenda is appended.

1.   Information by the Bureau members and the Secretariat

4.     The Bureau congratulated Georg STAWA for his promotion within the Austrian Ministry of Justice as Head of the Department for Project, Strategy and Innovation.

2.     Publication of the Report "European judicial systems – Edition 2010" and follow up to the evaluation process

5.     The Bureau underlined the qualitative step forward made by CEPEJ with its new report evaluating European judicial systems, in particular as regards statistical series enabling to assess the evolutions in justice systems in Europe.

6.     The Secretariat indicated that, since the formal adoption of the Report by the plenary meeting on 10 September, it had received many requests for amending data, which resulted in a tremendous work for the scientific expert and the Secretariat to finalise the report, as many of these unexpected changes led to the changes in a significant number of tables and figures. However the report would be ready for publication on 25 October, for the main event of the European Day of Justice celebrated in Ljubljana, as agreed by the CEPEJ at its last plenary meeting.

7.     The Bureau acknowledged the need for improving the next evaluation cycle in order to get earlier accountable data from all participating states. The following improvements were proposed for the next cycle:

§  opening the electronic Scheme for being answered by the national correspondents in spring 2011, in order to be stricter on the deadline of 31 December 2011; this would imply that the revision of the Scheme would be adopted at the 16th plenary meeting of the CEPEJ;

§  organising the meeting of the Network of national correspondents in spring 2012 on the basis of a pre-draft report, so that they could already have a valuable overview on the way their data have been processed and analysed, and possibly amend them before the plenary meeting;

§  in the new electronic Scheme, including the possibility to view the answer from the previous cycle;

§  including the main elements for interpreting the question within the questionnaire itself, and not only in the explanatory note;

§  having a specific follow up for those states which were the most problematic in the previous cycle.

8.     The Bureau proposed that the member sates are invited to prepare a brief synthesis underlining the main conclusions and trends concerning their own system, to be disseminated among national policy makers and justice professionals.

 

9.     Generally speaking, the Bureau proposed that the CEPEJ plays a more pro-active role for promoting its main tools, including the evaluation report, in the member states. It proposed to organise a kind of "CEPEJ's road show" aimed at introducing to the policy makers and justice professionals this unique material.

10.  The Bureau instructed the Secretariat to organise the proper dissemination of the evaluation report in the member states and to indicate to the CEPEJ's members the list of distribution.

3.     Setting up of a Court Coaching Programme (CEPEJ(GT-QUAL)

11.  The Bureau invited the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL to pursue the setting up of a court coaching programme to support volunteer courts in implementing the SATURN tools. A pool of experts could be trained in Strasbourg to further go and train volunteer courts. The Lisbon Network could also be involved in this programme.

4.     Setting up of a European court users satisfaction survey

12.  The Bureau supported the step by step approach proposed by the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL in order to test the implementation of the Handbook for court users satisfaction surveys from various sources (pilot courts, Lisbon Network, EUR, academia), to appoint expert(s) who could support the courts in interpreting the information collected and to organise an interpretation of the results at the CEPEJ level.

5.     Targeted cooperation

13.  The Bureau approved the report on the "Analysis of the rationalisation of the court Network in Montenegro (CEPEJ-COOP(2010)2)" prepared by the experts Elsa GARCIA-MALTRAS DE BLAS (Spain), Jacques BÜHLER (Switzerland) and Georg STAWA (Austria) and entrusted the Secretariat to forward it officially to the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro.

 

14.  The Bureau agreed to improve the follow up given to the recommendations made by CEPEJ's experts within the framework of its targeted cooperation. The member states concerned could be invited, after a given period, to request CEPEJ to assess the progress made since the report was delivered to them.

15.  The targeted cooperation programme implemented by the Directorate of cooperation could be forwarded for information of the CEPEJ Bureau.

6.     European Day of Justice and "Crystal Scales of Justice"

16.  The Bureau welcomed the great success of the "Crystal scales of justice" and the 50 entries from 23 member states. The 11 member jury selected four entries (Yambol administrative Court of Bulgaria: "Equal before the law, but not always equal before the language – Improving communication between courts and citizens"; Regional Court of Linz: "Promoting safer driving", University of Technology and Ministry of Justice of Finland: "New way of systematic management of delay reduction projects in courts - combining external expertise and internal participation",  Supreme Court of Slovenia: "Automated system for enforcement of authentic documents.

7.     Possible development of activities of the Lisbon Network within the framework of the activity programme of the CEPEJ

17.  The plenary meeting of the Lisbon Network would take place in the first half of 2011, and support in particular the work of the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL, in particular in entrusting judicial training institutions to test the implementation of the Handbook on court satisfaction surveys. The Bureau agreed that members of the Bureau and the GT-QUAL should participate in the meeting.

8.     Preparation of the 2011 Activity Programme

18.  The Bureau agreed that the 2011 Activity Programme should be focused namely on the effective implementation of the existing CEPEJ's tools and measures (Road show, Court Coaching Project, Peer evaluation of judicial statistics). A new evaluation cycle would be launched (see item 2 above).

19.  The Bureau instructed the Secretariat to draft the 2011 Activity Programme which would be commented by the Bureau members before its discussion at the 16trh plenary meeting for being adopted.

20.  John STACEY underlined that it might be useful to come back in the future to the issue of enforcement of court decisions (follow up to the work of the CEPEJ-GT-EXE)..

9.     The role of the CEPEJ in the follow-up of the Interlaken Conference concerning the future of the European Court of Human Rights (18/19 February 2010)

21.  The Bureau recalled the role of the CEPEJ as an "aide de camp" of the European Court of Human Rights and the CEPEJ's availability to contribute to the implementation of the general decisions of the Court.

10.  Agenda of the 16th plenary meeting of the CEPEJ

22.  The members of the Bureau underlined the elections to be organised at the 16th plenary meetings. John STACEY confirmed his candidature for the Presidency of CEPEJ and Georg STAWA his interest for the Vice-Presidency. A call for candidatures would be launched by the Secretariat before the plenary meeting.

23.  The Bureau instructed the Secretariat to prepare the Agenda taking into account, in particular, the discussion of this meeting.

11.  Co-operation with the European Union

24.  The Bureau agreed that a specific meeting is organised in Brussels with the support of the CoE's Office so that the CEPEJ's evaluation report can be introduced to the relevant EU bodies (in particular DG Justice of the EC, Justice Department of the EU Council, LIBE commission of the European Parliament) as well as to the member states delegations in Brussels (JLS advisors).

12.  Individual complaints submitted to the CEPEJ concerning justice matters

25.  There were no specific complaints to be examined by the Bureau.

13.  Any other business

26.  The Bureau agreed that videoconferences are organised with the World Bank for promoting CEPEJ's tools, in particular the new evaluation report.


Appendix 1

AGENDA / ORDRE DU JOUR

1.     Adoption of the agenda / Adoption de l’ordre du jour

2.     Information by the Bureau members and the Secretariat / Informations des membres du Bureau et du Secrétariat

3.     Publication of the Report "European judicial systems – Edition 2010" and follow up to the evaluation process / Publication du rapport "Systèmes judiciaires européens – Edition 2010" et suivi du processus d'évaluation

4.     Setting up of a Court Coaching Programme (CEPEJ(GT-QUAL) / Mise en place d'un programme de coaching des tribunaux (CEPEJ-GT-QUAL)

5.     Setting up of a European court users satisfaction survey / Mise en place d'une enquête de satisfaction des usagers des tribunaux au niveau européen

6.     Targeted cooperation / Coopération ciblée

§  Analysis of the rationalisation of the court network in Montenegro / Analyse de la rationalisation du réseau des tribunaux au Monténégro

7.     European Day of Justice and "Crystal Scales of Justice" / Journée Européenne de la Justice et "Balance de Cristal"

8.     Possible development of activities of the Lisbon Network within the framework of the activity programme of the CEPEJ / Possible développement d'activités du Réseau de Lisbonne dans le cadre du programme d'activité de la CEPEJ

9.     Preparation of the 2011 activity programme / Préparation du programme d’activité 2011

10.  The role of the CEPEJ in the follow-up of the Interlaken Conference concerning the future of the European Court of Human Rights (18/19 February 2010) / Le rôle de la CEPEJ dans le suivi de la Conférence d'Interlaken sur l'avenir de la Cour européenne des droits de l'Homme (18/19 février 2010)

11.  Agenda of the 16th plenary meeting of the CEPEJ / Ordre du jour de la 16èmeréunion plénière de la CEPEJ

12.  Co-operation with the European Union / Coopération avec l’Union européenne

13.  Individual complaints submitted to the CEPEJ concerning justice matters / Plaintes individuelles adressées à la CEPEJ sur des questions de justice

14.  Any other business / Questions diverses