CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2020)11

Strasbourg, 15 April 2020

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE

(CEPEJ)

WORKING GROUP ON EVALUATION OF JUDICIAL SYSTEMS

(CEPEJ-GT-EVAL)

Ad hoc meeting

15 April 2020

MEETING REPORT

Document prepared by the Secretariat

Directorate General I – Human Rights and Rule of Law

INTRODUCTION

1.     The Working Group on the evaluation of judicial systems (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) held, in the framework of the preparation of the next CEPEJ Evaluation report (cycle 2018-2020), an ad hoc meeting on 15 April from 9.30 am to 2.30 pm by videoconference. This meeting is supposed to partly replace the meeting initially scheduled for 7 and 8 April 2020 which could not take place because of the health situation (Covid 19).

2.     The agenda appears in Annex I and the list of participants in Annex II to this report.

I.            Information by the members of the working group and secretariat

3.     The President and the Secretariat thank all the experts of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL, as well as the experts in charge of drafting the chapters of the next CEPEJ Evaluation report, for their involvement and the work provided in very particular circumstances due to the health situation.

4.     The Secretariat reports that the work on the draft chapters is well advanced compared to previous cycles. The President and members of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL consider that the draft chapters constitute an excellent basis and are of very good quality.

5.     It is recalled that many meetings took place by videoconference, prior to this CEPEJ-GT-EVAL meeting, in order to prepare the draft chapters. These meetings systematically brought together the expert in charge of drafting, the supervisor(s), members of the Evaluation Working Group and members of the secretariat.

6.     The Secretariat also introduces Domitille Gautier de Charnacé, who is in charge, among the Evaluation team of the Secretariat, of the Western Balkans Dashboard, joined the CEPEJ Secretariat in October 2019 and is based in Podgorica (Montenegro).

II. PREPARATION OF THE EVALUATION REPORT (CYCLE 2018-2020)

7.     The Secretariat reports on the 2018 data collection and monitoring and indicates that this work is being finalized. Some data are still expected, and others still need to be clarified. An update of the data provided to the experts in charge of drafting the various chapters would be sent by the Secretariat at the end of the week. Changes compared to the previous version of the data will be indicated.

8.     The Secretariat recalls that this meeting constitutes an intermediate stage whose aim is to enable the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL to help the drafting experts to finalise their drafts by the end of April in accordance with the previously discussed timetable, by giving them guidelines and answering their questions.

9.     The finalized drafts will be reviewed by the Secretariat and supervisors, members of the Working Group, in May. If possible, a translation of the draft chapters will also be prepared. The draft report will then be sent to the CEPEJ members for adoption. The report should be published in October 2020. The Secretariat informs the Working Group and the drafting experts that this timetable is likely to be modified soon due to the current health situation. It is not yet possible to decide whether the CEPEJ plenary meeting, which should take place in Strasbourg on 11 and 12 June, will be able to take place.

10.   Working Group then examines each draft chapter of the report:

·         Chapter 2 : budgets (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2020)5)

·         Chapter 3 : judges, prosecutors, staff, lawyers (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2020)6)

·         Chapter 4 : organisation of courts (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2020)7)

·         Chapter 4 : users (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2020)8)

·         Chapter 4 : information technologies (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2020)9)

·         Chapter 5 : efficiency and quality (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2020)10)

11.   For each of these chapters, the expert in charge of drafting presents his or her main conclusions and the difficulties faced to the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL, which then discusses them.

12.   It is agreed that the experts in charge of drafting will finalise the draft chapters in accordance with the discussions and with the assistance of the Secretariat, in particular for the graphic part of the chapters. Specific meetings for each chapter may be organized by the Secretariat with the expert drafters and the member of the Working Group in charge of overseeing the chapter as soon as necessary. The drafts should be submitted to the Secretariat by the end of April and a meeting could be held in early May with all the drafters and CEPEJ-GT-EVAL.

13.   At the end of the discussions on each chapter, the Working Group raises some issues common to the various chapters and decides that :

·         the formulation of trends must remain in the form of questions ;

·         there is no provision for annexes containing graphics/tables in addition to those included directly in the chapters; if necessary, additional graphics/tables will be included in CEPEJ-STAT ;

·         tables/graphs should contain references to the question numbers of the CEPEJ evaluation questionnaire;

·         with the exception of Chapter 1, chapters must not contain footnotes ;

·         each chapter should contain brief and clear conclusions;

·         as in previous cycles, some data may be excluded from some charts because their impact is too strong, especially on averages. If this is the case, the drafting experts should make this very clear;

·         harmonization concerning the presentation and the number of pages between the different chapters will be carried out upon receipt of the final versions presented by the experts in charge of drafting.

14. It has been agreed that the examination of Chapter 1 (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2020)4) as well as the draft country fact sheets (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2019)12rev1) and the new dashboard on efficiency in CEPEJ-STAT (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(201913rev1), prepared by the Secretariat, will be carried out at a second ad hoc meeting of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL on 22 April 2020.

 APPENDIX I : DRAFT AGENDA / PROJET D’ORDRE DU JOUR

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

2. Information by the members of the Working Group and the Secretariat / Information des membres du groupe de travail et du Secrétariat

3. Preparation of the Evaluation Report (2018 – 2020 cycle) / Préparation du rapport d’Evaluation (Cycle 2018 – 2020)

-       Data status / Etat des données

-       Presentation by each expert in charge of drafting a chapter of the report (main conclusion/trends and difficulties) / Présentation par chaque expert en charge de la rédaction d’un chapitre du rapport (principales conclusions/tendances, difficultés)

-       Country Fiches / Fiches pays

-       Dashboard on efficiency in CEPEJ-STAT / Tableau de bord sur l’efficacité dans CEPEJ-STAT 

APPENDIX II : List of Participants / Liste des participants

Members / Membres

Juan Fernando ARMENGOT IBORRA, Letrado de la Administración de Justicia Asesor, Ministerio de Justicia, MADRID, ESPAGNE

Joanne BATTISTINO, Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, The Law Courts, VALLETTA, MALTA

Simone KREβ, Vice-President, Landgericht Köln, KÖLN, GERMANY

Christophe KOLLER, Directeur opérationnel, ESEHA, BERNE, SUISSE

Jaša VRABEC, Head of the Office for Court Management Development, Supreme Court, LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA (President of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL/ Président du CEPEJ-GT-EVAL)   

Martina VRDOLJAK, Head of department for statistics, analytic and strategic development of Judiciary, Directorate for organisation of Judiciary, Ministry of justice, ZAGREB, CROATIA

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PRESIDENT OF CEPEJ / PRESIDENT DE LA CEPEJ

Ramin GURBANOV, Judge, Baku City Yasamal District court, BAKU, AZERBAIJAN,Apologised / Excusé

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SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS / EXPERTS SCIENTIFIQUES

Victoria MERTIKOPOULOU, Advisor, EU and Competition, Regulatory, Compliance, Kyriakides Georgopoulos Law Firm, ATHENS, GREECE

Raffaella CALO’, Judge, Ministry of Justice, ROME, ITALY

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EVALUATION REPORT EXPERTS / EXPERTS DU RAPPORT D’EVALUATION

Ana KRNIC KULUSIC, Justice Reform Expert, Independent, ZAGREB, CROATIA

Alain LACABARATS, Président de Chambre, Cour de Cassation, PARIS, FRANCE

Marco VELICOGNA, Researcher and Consultant, BOLOGNA, ITALY

Federica VIAPIANA, Research Fellow at IRSIG-CNR, BOLOGNA, ITALIA

Jan Philipp WESTHOFF, Richter am Landgericht (Judge at Regional Court), Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia, DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY

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SECRETARIAT

Justice and Legal Co-operation Department / Service de la Coopération judiciaire et juridique

Hanne JUNCHER, Head of the Justice and Legal Co-operation Department / Chef du service de la cooperation judiciaire et juridique

Muriel DECOT, Secretary of the CEPEJ / Secrétaire de la CEPEJ

Christel SCHURRER, Secretary of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL / Secrétaire du CEPEJ-GT-EVAL

Lidija NAUMOVSKA, Statistician / Statisticienne

Milan NIKOLIC, Administrator / Administrateur

Anne-Louise JACQUET, Legal officer / Juriste

Guergana LAZAROVA-DECHAUX, Legal officer / Juriste

Domitille GAUTIER DE CHARNACE, Project coordinator/ Coordinatrice de projets

Annette SATTEL, Administration and Networks / Administration et Réseaux

Anna KHROMOVA, Assistant / Assistante