http://www.coe.int/documents/5492562/7044393/COE-Logo-Fil-BW.png/bb17a17e-5308-4fc0-929d-5c4baf3ab99d?t=1371222816000

CCJE-GT(2018)4

Strasbourg, 25 October 2018                                                                                           

WORKING GROUP OF THE

CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN JUDGES

(CCJE-GT)

Report of the 35th meeting

Porto, 13 – 15 June 2018

Document prepared by the Secretariat

Directorate General I - Human Rights and Rule of Law


 

I.          INTRODUCTION

1.         The Working Group of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE-GT) held its 35th meeting in Porto from 13 to 15 June 2018. The meeting was chaired by Ms Nina BETETTO (Croatia), Vice-President of the CCJE.

2.         The agenda and the list of participants are appended to this report (Appendices I and II respectively).

II.       COMMUNICATION BY THE PRESIDENT, MEMBERS OF THE BUREAU AND WORKING GROUP OF THE CCJE

3.         Mr Duro SESSA (Croatia), President of the CCJE, opened the meeting by informing the members of the Working Group on the Bureau meeting preceding the present meeting of the Working Group. The President also thanked Mr Nils ENGSTAD (Norway), currently member of the Working Group, for his effective and fruitful presidency of the CCJE in 2016 and 2017.

4.         The President went on to inform the Working Group about the situation in Poland which remained very difficult, his participation in the conference in Tbilisi and meeting with the President of the Georgian Supreme Court, participation in the meeting in Lisbon organised by the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ), making a presentation in Zagreb, meeting in Oslo with the President of the Venice Commission, and taking part in the conference in Belgrade on the changes to the Constitution affecting the judiciary in Serbia[1].

5.         The President mentioned in particular that the CCJE has been approached by the Polish Judges Association “IUSTITIA" with a request to react to the extremely worrying situation with the independence of judges in Poland, and to respond to the concrete questions about compatibility with the Council of Europe standards of the several processes in Poland leading to the replacement of court presidents and vice-presidents, formation of the new National Council of the Judiciary, termination of the tenure of the Supreme Court’s First President and judges and the new model of disciplinary proceedings for judges[2].

6.         The Vice-President also briefed the Working Group about her participation in a meeting in Warsaw organised by the OSCE discussing the difficult situation of the judiciary in Poland[3].

7.         Ms Nino BAKAKURI (Georgia), in the context of the comments of the President on his meeting in Tbilisi with the President of the Georgian Supreme Court, briefed the Working Group on the current situation in Georgia regarding the appointment of the Supreme Court judges and judicial reforms.

8.         The Secretariat reminded the Working Group that the 2018 edition of the Report "European judicial systems - efficiency and quality of justice" of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) would be adopted at the end of June 2018 and would become available on-line, with modern search tools available on the CEPEJ website.

III.      PREPARATION OF THE CCJE OPINION NO. 21 ON PREVENTING CORRUPTION AMONG JUDGES

 

9.         The Vice-President presented the draft Opinion No. 21, prepared by the CCJE expert, Dr Rainer HORNUNG (CCJE-GT(2018)1Prov2). The Working Group members agreed that this draft was an excellent basis for developing the text and expressed their appreciation for the work of the CCJE expert. They proceeded to discuss in detail the relevant aspects of the draft Opinion and various issues.

10.      In particular, the Working Group focused on re-structuring certain chapters of the draft Opinion to make it more straightforward and user-friendly, and reformulating some fundamental concepts for better comprehension and understanding not only by groups of legal professionals, but also by civil society, mass media and public at large, such as:

·         definition of judicial corruption;

·         factors leading to corruption among judges;

·         general safeguards against corruption;

·         strengthening the integrity of judges, including such components as:

-       regulatory, institutional and organisational framework;

-       ethical conduct, ethical counselling, and training on ethics;

-       avoiding conflicts of interests;

-       the responsibility of each judge to act against corruption within the judiciary;

·         preventive effect of properly investigating and penalising corruption among judges;

·         international instruments, mechanisms and cooperation for preventing corruption among judges.

11.      The Working Group also focused on such phenomenon as the perceived corruption, and re-arranged the corresponding chapter in the draft.

12.      The Working Group did not work on the conclusions and recommendations because first it wanted to finalise the text and then entrust the Bureau and the Secretariat to prepare the conclusions and recommendations based on the exact formulations in the text.

13.      Consequently, the Working Group requested that the Secretariat finalises the draft resulting from the meeting, then sends it to the Vice-President who would further streamline and fine-tune some chapters and paragraphs.

14.      Then the Secretariat would send the draft again to members of the Bureau and the Working Group for their final comments. The latter would be integrated by the Secretariat into the draft, and then it would be forwarded to Mr George BIRMINGHAM (Ireland) for linguistic editing. The French version of the draft will be linguistically edited by the Secretariat. Thereafter, in line with the usual procedure, the final draft would be sent to all members of the CCJE for their comments before the plenary meeting in Zagreb.

IV.     OTHER ITEMS

15.      The members of the Working Group expressed their appreciation for the invitation of the Supreme Court of Justice of Portugal and its generous support for this meeting. They also thanked in particular Mr Orlando AFONSO (Portugal) for his initiative and organisational efforts to organise the meeting in Porto.

16.      The plenary meeting of the CCJE will take place on 7-9 November 2018 in Zagreb at the invitation of the Supreme Court and Ministry of Justice of Croatia, within the framework of the Croatian Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers. The members of the Working Group expressed their high appreciation to the CCJE President[4] for taking this initiative and his efforts for the efficient organisation of the plenary meeting.


APPENDIX I

AGENDA / ORDRE DU JOUR

1.      Opening of the meeting / Ouverture de la réunion

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

3.      Communication by the President, members of the Bureau and the Secretariat / Communication du Président, des membres du Bureau et du Secrétariat

4.      Preparation of the draft Opinion No. 21 on “Preventing corruption among judges” / Préparation du projet de l’Avis No. 21 sur «Prévention de la corruption parmi les juges»

5.      Any other business / Divers


APPENDIX II

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

MEMBERS OF THE CCJE-GT / MEMBRES DU CCJE-GT

Mr Orlando AFONSO, Juge à la Cour Suprême, ALMADA, PORTUGAL

Ms Aneta ARNAUDOVSKA, Judge, Director of the Academy of Judges and Prosecutors, SKOPJE, “THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA” / “L’EX-REPUBLIQUE YOUGOSLAVE DE MACEDOINE” (Gender equality rapporteur / Rapporteur pour la questions de parité)

(apologised/excusée)

Ms Nino BAKAKURI, Judge, Supreme Court, TBILISI, GEORGIA / GÉORGIE

Ms Anke EILERS, Presiding Judge, Court of Appeal, COLOGNE, GERMANY / ALLEMAGNE

Mr Nils ENGSTAD, Judge, Hålogaland Court of Appeal, TROMSØ, NORWAY / NORVEGE

 

Mr Viktor GORODOVENKO, Judge, Constitutional Court, KYIV, UKRAINE

Ms Kathrin KLETT, Juge fédéral suprême, 1ère Cour de Droit Civil, LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND / SUISSE

Ms Canòlic MINGORANCE CAIRAT, Juge, Seu de la Justicia Av Tarragona, ANDORRA LA VELLA, ANDORRA / ANDORRE

Ms Mirjana POPOVIĆ, Judge, High Court of Podgorica, PODGORICA, MONTENEGRO

(apologised/excusée)

Mr Gerhard REISSNER, President of the District Court of Floridsdorf, VIENNA, AUSTRIA / AUTRICHE

Mr Raffaele SABATO, Judge, Supreme Court of Cassation, ROME, ITALY / ITALIE

(apologised/excusée)

 

OTHER PARTICIPANTS / AUTRES PARTICIPANTS

Ms Erin JACKSON, Researcher, Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance, Institute of Jurisprudence, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Utrecht University, UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS / PAYS-BAS

SCIENTIFIC EXPERT / EXPERT SCIENTIFIQUE

Dr Rainer HORNUNG, Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Lörrach Prosecution Office, Former Director of the German Judicial Academy, LÖRRACH, GERMANY / ALLEMAGNE

MEMBERS OF THE CCJE-BU / MEMBRES DU CCJE-BU

Mr Duro SESSA, President of the Supreme Court, ZAGREB, CROATIA / CROATIE

(President of the CCJE / Président du CCJE)

 

Ms Nina BETETTO, Judge, Supreme Court, LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA / SLOVENIE

(Vice-President of the CCJE / Vice-Président du CCJE)

Mr George BIRMINGHAM, Judge, Court of Appeal, DUBLIN,IRELAND / IRLANDE

Mr Mats MELIN, President of the Supreme Administrative Court, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN / SUEDE

COUNCIL OF EUROPE’S SECRETARIAT /

SECRETARIAT DU CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE

Directorate General I – Human Rights and Rule of Law / Division for the Independence and Efficiency of Justice

Direction générale I – Droits de l’Homme et Etat de Droit / Division pour l’indépendance et l’efficacité de la justice

E-mail: [email protected]

Mr Stéphane LEYENBERGER, Head of the Division, Secretary of the CCJE / Chef de la Division, Secrétaire du CCJE

Tel: + 33 (0)3 88 41 34 12, E-mail: [email protected]

Mr Artashes MELIKYAN, Co-Secretary of the CCJE / Co-Secrétaire du CCJE

Tel: + 33 (0)3 90 21, E-mail: [email protected]

Ms Despina TRAMOUNTANI, Assistant / Assistante

Tel. +33 (0)3 90 21 62 95, E-mail: [email protected]

Ms Annette SATTEL, Administration and Networks / Administration et réseaux

Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 39 04, E-mail: [email protected]

INTERPRETERS / INTERPRETES

Ms Carla BASTO

Ms Irène LECLERC

Mr Carlos DUARTE

Ms Teresa PEIXOTO



[1] For more information, see the report of the 25th meeting of the CCJE Bureau (document CCJE-BU(2018)8), paras 4-7.

[2] Ibid., paras 13-14.

[3] Ibid., para 9.

[4] Mr Duro SESSA, President of the CCJE, is the President of the Supreme Court of Croatia.