Strasbourg, 9 June 2021
CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2021)10
EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE
(CEPEJ)
WORKING GROUP ON THE EVALUATION OF JUDICIAL SYSTEMS
(CEPEJ-GT-EVAL)
40th réunion
7 April 2021
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) has held its 40th meeting on 7 April 2021, with Jaša Vrabec (Slovenia) in the chair. Considering the sanitary situation, the meeting took place via videoconference.
2. The agenda and the list of participants appear respectively in appendices I and II to this report.
I. Information BY THE SECRETARIAT AND MEMBERS OF THE GT-EVAL
3. The Secretariat introduced two new colleagues to the Working Group, Oxana Gutu and Tony Vilela. They will support the Evaluation team in particular for the Dashboard Eap Project.
II. 2020-2022 EVALUATION CYCLE
a. Questionnaire and Explanatory note
- The Secretariat informed the Working Group of the last modifications of the Questionnaire for evaluating judicial systems and of the Explanatory note, as well as the opening of the data collection campaign for the 2020-2022 cycle in the CEPEJ-COLLECT system. The different documents and the main changes will be presented to the CEPEJ National correspondents during the 15th plenary meeting on April 8th.
- On this occasion, the Secretariat also addressed the organization of the National correspondents meeting. This meeting is open to all CEPEJ National correspondents. The first part of the meeting will be more devoted to welcoming and informing the newly appointed CEPEJ National correspondents and will include an introduction to the methodology and working principles of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL, to the CEPEJ-COLLECT and CEPEJ-STAT tools as well as to the principles of quality check. A second part of the meeting will be devoted to the summary of the previous Evaluation cycle (2018-2020) as well as to a presentation of the new CEPEJ Evaluation cycle and in particular of the new questions of the Questionnaire and the revised Explanatory note.
b. Potential difficulties during quality check
6. The members of the Working Group exchanged with the Secretariat on the various difficulties that may emerge during the quality check process:
- Frequent changes of National correspondent for some countries and the considerable number of National correspondents for the current cycle (2020-2022),
- Difficulties in obtaining data in a timely manner,
- The need to work with some countries on more structural difficulties linked to the unavailability of some data, through peer review missions or through bilateral videoconference meetings.
7. The Secretariat also mentioned the difficulties posed by the existence of four different data collections this year (Evaluation of European judicial systems cycle, data collections for the EU Justice Scoreboard, for the Dashboard Western Balkans and for the Dashboard Eastern Partnership) whose questionnaires and calendars differ, which could lead to a risk of overload for some correspondents concerned by several data collections and to difficulties of harmonization within the quality controls of the data carried out by the CEPEJ Secretariat.
8. The Secretariat informed the Working Group of internal discussions regarding the creation of tools at the Secretariat level to cope with these different issues.
9. The Working Group also confirmed its willingness to further involve the National correspondents in the process, as in the previous cycle.
c. Structure and timetable of the next Report
10. The Secretariat shared the planned timetable of future activities regarding Evaluation report. The Working Group agreed on this timetable.
11. The Working Group and the Secretariat discussed the structure of the next Evaluation report, and in particular the following points:
- The objective is to explore in greater depth the analysis on European trends (part 1) and on trends in each country (part 2).
- The necessary evolution of the presentation of the data in the Evaluation report (i.e. the need to include in the country fiches (part 2) a clearer position of the countries in relation to the European trends presented in part 1 and the evolutions between cycles).
- The appointment, in addition to the experts responsible for writing the various chapters of the Evaluation Report, of an expert to review the Evaluation Report as a whole, to harmonize the conclusions of the Evaluation Report, and to highlight possible future challenges.
- The addition of a mention in the Evaluation report regarding the specificity of the 2020 data due to the health crisis.
The Working Group agreed to reflect on the relevance of the themes and questions contained in the analysis part (part 1) as well as the data to be selected in the Country fiches (part 2) and to make suggestions to the Secretariat to be presented at its next meeting in October.
12. The Working Group decided not to select a specific theme for the next Evaluation report but to possibly consider it for the next cycle 2024 (data 2022) in connection with the digitalization of justice.
d. Experts in charge of drafting
13. The Working Group instructed the Secretariat to establish contacts with experts who could draft the different chapters of the Evaluation Report in order to be able to invite them to the next meeting of the Working Group, on 5 and 6 October 2021.
III. SPECIFIC STUDY ON THE JUDICIAL PROFESSIONALS
14. The Secretariat informed the Working Group that the International Union of Judicial Officers (UIHJ) and the European Expertise and Experts Institute (EEEI) have each one prepared a specific study based on 2018 data that had been sent to them as a complement to the last Evaluation report published in October 2020.
15. The IUHJ document is being translated in English and will soon be submitted to the Working Group by written procedure for adoption and publication on CEPEJ-STAT.
16. The Secretariat informed the Working Group that the Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) is also drafting a specific study.
IV. COOPERATION WITH EUROPEAN COMMISSION
17. The Secretariat informed the Working Group about the progress of activities undertaken in cooperation with European Commission (EC), namely the EC Justice Scoreboard, the Dashboard Western Balkans and the Dashboard Eastern Partnership.
a. Study for the European Commission on the functioning of judicial systems in the member States of the European Union (Scoreboard of justice)
18. The negotiations with the EC are ongoing in order to renew the contract concerning the CEPEJ study for the EU Justice Scoreboard.
19. The Secretariat referred that the scope of the CEPEJ's study will be widened to include criminal proceedings.
b. Dashboard Western Balkans
20. The Dashboard Western Balkans data collection is complete (the deadline to fill out the questionnaire was on 1 March 2021). The Secretariat informed the Working Group that, as of the date of the meeting, all the concerned beneficiaries, except for Albania and Serbia, had answered the questionnaire opened for this study in CEPEJ-COLLECT. The report based on the data collected is being prepared and will contain a "comparative" section and a section of “fiches by beneficiary”.
c. New Dashboard - Eastern Partnership countries
21. The Secretariat informed the Working group that the appointment of the CEPEJ correspondents for this study is currently in progress as well as the preparation of the Questionnaire in collaboration with the European Commission services.
22. The data collection should open at the beginning of May and completed on 1st October.
V. PROTOCOL TO ACCESS DATA
23. The Secretariat presented to the Working Group the Protocol to access CEPEJ data which must be completed and followed for any request to access to the CEPEJ data and which formalizes the requests and gives the future data users indications on the use of the transmitted data.
24. This document is necessary because demands to access CEPEJ data from experts, CEPEJ members, national correspondents but also from other users are increasingly frequent and concern both data which are not yet published on CEPEJ-STAT and requests concerning access to data published on CEPEJ-STAT but in a different format from the one available.
25. Concerning the procedure to be followed, the Secretariat stressed that requests for access to data sent to the Secretariat will continue to be submitted to the Working Group if necessary.
VI. EXCHANGE OF VIEWS REGARDING TRAINING ON CEPEJ EVALUATION TOOLS
26. The Secretariat recalled that the development of tools as regards training is part of the framework of the CEPEJ Working Groups mandate. However, it is suggested that the training is created at the CEPEJ level and that each Working Group contributes to a module of this CEPEJ general training which could be developed starting from the "Help" platform of the Council of Europe. Discussions are currently ongoing between the various services.
27. Among the possible topics, the Secretariat has identified a training module on the performance indicators developed by the Evaluation Working Group, on CEPEJ-STAT and on the challenges and issues of the use of statistics in judicial matters.
28. The Working Group will explore other possible modules and inform the Secretariat if necessary.
VII. ANY OTHER BUISNESS
29. The Secretariat mentioned the project on "Justice without Litigation" for which the cooperation of the CEPEJ and of an expert specialized on Evaluation was requested. The main part of this project consists in a legal and economic study of non-contentious justice system in the Central European States (Croatia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia as well as Italy and the French region Alsace-Moselle).
30. The next meeting of the Working Group will be held on 5 and 6 October. The place of the meeting will be defined according to the evolution of the health crisis.
Appendix I / Annexe I
DRAFT AGENDA /PROJET D’ORDRE DU JOUR
1. Adoption of the agenda / Adoption de l’ordre du jour
Information by the members of the Working Group and the Secretariat / Information des membres du groupe de travail et du Secrétariat
2. 2020 – 2022 evaluation cycle / Cycle d’évaluation 2020 – 2022
Questionnaire and explanatory note, potential difficulties during quality check, structure and timetable of the next Report, experts in charge of drafting / Questionnaire et note explicative, difficultés potentielles du quality check, structure et calendrier du prochain rapport, experts en charge de la rédaction
3. Specific Study on the judicial professionals/ Etude spécifique sur les professionnels de la justice
4. Cooperation with European Commission / Coopération avec la Commission Européenne
5. Protocole to access data / Protocole d’accès aux données
6. Exchanges of views regarding training on CEPEJ evaluation tools / Echanges de vues sur la formation sur les outils CEPEJ en matière d’évaluation
7. Any other business/ Questions diverses
Appendix II / Annexe II
List of participants /Liste de participants
MEMBERS / MEMBRES
|
CROATIA / CROATIE |
Ms Martina VRDOLJAK Head of department for statistics, analytic and strategic development of Judiciary, Directorate for organisation of Judiciary, Ministry of justice |
|
GERMANY / ALLEMAGNE |
Ms Simone KREβ Judge, Vice-President of the Tribunal in Cologne |
|
MALTA / MALTE |
Ms Joanne BATTISTINO Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, The Law Courts |
|
SLOVENIA / SLOVENIE |
Mr Jaša VRABEC Head of the Office for Court Management Development, Supreme Court (President of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL/ Président du CEPEJ-GT-EVAL)
|
|
SPAIN / ESPAGNE |
Mr Juan Fernando ARMENGOT IBORRA Advisor, Directorate General for International Legal Cooperation and Religious Affairs, Ministry of Justice |
|
SWITZERLAND / SUISSE |
Mr Christophe KOLLER Researcher, Director ESEHA, Centre for counselling and comparative analysis |
PARTICIPANTS / PARTICIPANTS
|
COUNCIL OF THE BARS AND LAW SOCIETIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION / CONSEIL DES BARREAUX EUROPEENS (CCBE) |
Ms Anna SMOLINSKA Legal Advisor / Conseiller juridique |
|
EUROPEAN EXPERTISE AND EXPERT INSTITUTE / INSTITUT EUROPEEN DE L’EXPERTISE ET DE L’EXPERT (EEEI) |
Mr Eric PARIZE Expert Consultant in information systems / Expert Consultant en système d'information |
|
EUROPEAN UNION OF RECHTSPFLEGER / UNION EUROPEENNE DES GREFFIERS DE JUSTICE ET RECHTSPFLEGER (EUR) |
Mr W. LAEMMER Chair / Président |
|
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF BAILIFFS / UNION INTERNATIONALE DES HUISSIERS DE JUSTICE ET OFFICIERS JUDICIAIRES (UIHJ) |
Mr Patrick GIELEN Bailiff, Adviser of the President / Huissier de justice, Conseiller du président |
|
MOROCCO / MAROC |
Ms Asmae REGRAGUY Chef de la Division de l’Evaluation et de la Modernisation Direction des Etudes, de la Coopération et de la Modernisation Ministère de la Justice |
INVITED DELEGATION / DELEGATION INVITEE
|
SLOVAK REPUBLIC / REPUBLIQUE SLOVAQUE |
Ms Danka KOVAĽOVÁ Adviser of the Analytical Unit, Ministry of Justice |
|
SLOVAK REPUBLIC / REPUBLIQUE SLOVAQUE |
Ms Zuzana PIOVARCIOVA Adviser of the Analytical Unit, Ministry of Justice |
|
REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA / REPUBLIQUE DE MOLDOVA |
Ms Tatiana CIAGLIC National Institute of Justice |
SECRETARIAT / SECRETARIAT
Justice and Legal Co-operation Department / Service de la Coopération judiciaire et juridique
DGI – CEPEJ
|
Ms Christel SCHURRER Secretary of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL / Secrétaire du CEPEJ-GT-EVAL |
|
Ms Lidija NAUMOVSKA Statistician/ Statisticienne |
|
Administrator / Administrateur |
|
Ms Federica VIAPIANA Administrator / Administratrice |
|
Ms Daniela ZOL Statistician / Statisticienne |
|
Mr Tony VILELA Statistician / Statisticien |
|
Ms Guergana LAZAROVA-DECHAUX Legal officer / Juriste |
|
Ms Iulia DRAGOTA Legal officer / Juriste |
|
Ms Oxana GUTU Administrator / Administrateur |
|
Ms Domitille GAUTIER DE CHARNACE Project coordinator/ Coordinatrice de projets |
|
Ms Annette SATTEL Administration and Networks / Administration et Réseaux |
|
Ms Anna KHROMOVA Assistant / Assistante |