CCJE(2014)5

Strasbourg, 24 October 2014

CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN JUDGES (CCJE)

15th plenary meeting

Strasbourg, 22-24 October 2014

ABRIDGED MEETING REPORT

A.   FOREWORD          

1.     The Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE) held its 15th plenary meeting in Strasbourg, on 22-24 October 2014, with Mr Bart van LIEROP (Netherlands) in the chair. The agenda is appended and list of participants is available from the Secretariat.

B.   ITEMS SUBMITTED TO THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS FOR DECISION

2.     The CCJE invited the Committee of Ministers:

a.     to take note of the Opinion No. 17 (2014) “on the evaluation of judges’ work, the quality of justice and respect for judicial independence”

and to note that this document would be forwarded to the relevant bodies in the member states, which would be encouraged to translate it into appropriate languages if need be, and to the relevant bodies of the Council of Europe in order that they can take account of it in their own work;

b.    to take note of this report as a whole.

C.   LIST OF ITEMS DISCUSSED AND DECISIONS TAKEN BY THE CCJE

The CCJE

3.     adopted its Opinion No. 17(2014) “on the evaluation of judges’ work, the quality of justice and respect for judicial independence” (CCJE(2014)3), subject to possible amendments on the form by its Bureau, which is entrusted to do so if needed, in order to ensure the good consistency of the English and French versions;

decided to submit it to the Committee of Ministers to take note of it; invited the member States to ensure its distribution as far as possible among decision-makers, judges and lawyers, including its translation where needed; decided to transmit it also to the CEPEJ and the CDCJ, so that they take it into account in the course of their work;

4.     took note of the CCJE Activity Report for 2014 (CCJE-BU(2014)5) prepared by the Bureau and welcomed the involvement of its members who promoted the Opinions and the work of the CCJE in the course of the year within the framework of other fora;   

5.     took note of the responses given by its Bureau to the requests regarding the situation of judges in Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine ; took note of the request by the Group of judges from Luxembourg and entrusted its Bureau to prepare an answer ;

6.     recalled that, in accordance with its Terms of Reference, it was at the disposal of the Committee of Ministers and other bodies of the Council of Europe (particularly the Secretary General and the Parliamentary Assembly) to prepare opinions concerning the specific situation of judges in given member States; to that end, invited its members to indicate their availability to take part in a pool of experts to be requested to work accordingly;

7.     decided to re-focus its 2015 Opinion on the following topic: “the independence of the judiciary and its relationships with the other powers in a modern democratic state” and instructed its Bureau and the select group appointed for 2015 to prepare a draft Opinion on this issue to be adopted at its 16th plenary meeting;

8.     agreed to take into account the reports by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the situation of Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Europe to define the topics of its coming work;

9.     appointed Mr Orlando AFONSO (Portugal), Ms Aneta ARNAUDOVSKA (« the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia »), Mr José Francisco COBO SAENZ (Spain), Mr Nils ENGSTAD (Norway), Ms Aida-Rodica POPA (Romania), Mr Gerhard REISSNER (Austria), Ms Maiia ROUSSEVA (Bulgaria), Mr Raffaele SABATO (Italy), Mr Duro SESSA (Croatia) as members, and Mr Gerassimos FOURLANOS (Greece), Mr Burak Turan BENLI (Turkey) and Mr Jean-Claude WIWINIUS (Luxembourg) as substitute members to the select group (CCJE-GT) responsible for preparing the 2015 draft Opinion to be submitted to the 16th plenary meeting of the CCJE;

10.  re-elected Mr Bart van LIEROP (Netherlands) as President and Mr Richard AIKENS (United Kingdom) as Vice-President for 2015; re-elected Ms Nina BETETTO (Slovenia) and Mr Johannes RIEDEL (Germany) as the Bureau members for 2015 and 2016;  

11.  designated Ms Aida-Rodica POPA (Romania) as the Gender Equality Rapporteur for 2015;

12.  proposed to hold its 16th plenary meeting from 14 to 16 October 2015; thanked its member in respect of the United Kingdom for the invitation to hold the 16th meeting of the CCJE in London in the framework of the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta;

13.  proposed to hold the 28th and 29th meetings of the select group (CCJE-GT) on 18-20 March 2015 and 3-5 June 2015 respectively; thanked its member in respect of Norway for the invitation to hold a meeting of the select group in his country.

APPENDIX

AGENDA

1.    Adoption of the agenda

2.    Information by the President, the CCJE members and the Secretariat

3.    CCJE Opinion N°17(2014)

4.    Situation of the judiciary and judges in the member States of the Council of Europe: recent developments and follow-up by the CCJE

5.    Working methods of the CCJE

·         Election of the President and of the Vice-President of the CCJE

·         Election of members of the CCJE Bureau

·         Appointment of the CCJE’s Working Group for 2015

•         Appointment of the CCJE Gender Equality Rapporteur for 2015

6.    Calendar of the CCJE’s and CCJE-GT’s meetings in 2015

7.     Any other business