Strasbourg, 15 February 2017

CEPEJ-BU(2017)1

EuropeAn COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF justice

(CEPEJ)

29^th meeting of the Bureau of the CEPEJ

20 January 2017

MEETING REPORT

Document prepared by the Secretariat
Directorate General I – Human Rights and Rule of Law

1.     The Bureau of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) held its 29th meeting in Paris on 20 January 2017, chaired by Georg STAWA (Austria), President of the CEPEJ.

2.     Also present were the following members of the Bureau :

§  Ramin GURBANOV (Azerbaijan), Vice-President;

§  Ivana BORZOVA (Czech Republic), member;

§  Noel RUBOTHAM (Ireland), member.

3.     The Agenda appears in the Appendix to this report.

1.   Implementation of the 2016-2017 Activity Programme

a.     Calendar of the meetings

4.     The Bureau confirmed the draft agenda which appeared on the CEPEJ Web site.

b.    Appointment of the experts of the Working Groups

5.     The Bureau took note of the various candidatures forwarded to the Secretariat and thanked all the contributing members.

6.     The Bureau appointed

·         Noel RUBOTHAM (Ireland), the current deputy member of the Steering Group of the SATURN Centre, as member of this Group for 2017 and Ivana NINCIC (Serbia) as deputy member of the Group; it thanked Jacques BÜHLER (Switzerland) for his involvement as Chairman of the Group during several years;

 

·         Martina VRDOLJAK (Croatia) as member of the Working group on evaluation (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) for 2017; it thanked Frans VAN DER DOELEN for his involvement in this Working Group since it had been set up;

 

·         Nina BETTETO (Slovenia), Anna MAROVA (Czech Republic), Jean A. MIRIMANOFF (Switzerland), Maria OLIVEIRA (Portugal), Rimantas SIMANTIS (Lithuania) and Jeremy TAGG (United Kingdom) as members of the Working group on mediation (CEPEJ-GT-MED), and Giancarlo TRISCARI (Italy) as deputy member of the Group; it agreed that Leonardo d’URSO (Italy) would work with this Group as a scientific expert.

7.     The composition of the working groups as decided by the Bureau appears in Appendix II.

c.     Evaluation of judicial systems     

8.     The Bureau was confirmed that the usual timetable would be respected for the 2016-2018 evaluation cycle. The Secretariat informed that the Director General of Human Rights and Legal Affair would visit Morocco to launch the involvement of this observer State in the evaluation process.

9.     The Secretariat explained the on-going work for setting up a new electronic tool for data collection that should be operational in May, for launching the data collection campaign.

10.  The Bureau agreed to confirm to the European Commission the CEPEJ’s readiness to pursue the cooperation for the “EU Justice Scoreboard” based on a new four year contract to be signed with the Council of Europe.

In this framework, the Bureau of the CEPEJ urged the European Commission to use the CEPEJ data without mixing them with other data collected from other sources to avoid potential questioning as to the quality and reliability of the data.  Such questions may arise if mixed with other data collected from unchecked sources which therefore may or may not be reliable according to the CEPEJ methodology.

The Bureau instructed the Secretariat to forward this formal statement to the European Commission.

11.  The Secretariat confirmed that peer evaluation visits would take place in 2017 in Czech Republic, Georgia, Spain and Cyprus. The Bureau proposed to check in advance to these visits if the member States concerned have other needs or expectations as regards the evaluation of their judicial systems, beyond the discussions on statistics.  

d.    SATURNCentre

12.  The Bureau was informed that the on-going activities within the Steering group of the SATURN Centre for judicial time management were being carried out according to the Activity programme. The Secretariat informed that Jacques BÜHLER would leave its function as Chairman of the Group.

e.     Quality of Justice

13.  The Bureau was informed that the on-going activities within the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL were being carried out according to the Activity programme.

 

14.  It underlined the need to insist on the communication on, and the implementation of, the new documents prepared by the GT-QUAL and adopted by the CEPEJ in December 2016.

15.  The Bureau suggested to establish links with the new Dutch quality system.

f.      Ad hoc Group for the harmonisation of the definitions used by the CEPEJ

16.  The Bureau agreed that each working group would appoint one member to participate in the second part of 2017 in an ad hoc meeting aimed at harmonizing the definition of the main concepts used by the CEPEJ. The meeting would be chaired by Laetitia BRUNIN, member of the CEPEJ in respect of France.

 

g.    Cooperation programmes and activities

17.  The Bureau took note of the on-going and planned activities regarding the following programmes :

·         Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans – Albania and Kosovo*^[1] - Joint programme with the European Union,

·         Programmatic Co-operation Framework for the countries of the Eastern partnership -  Azerbaijan and Republic of Moldova - Joint programme with the European Union,

·         Towards Strengthened Democratic Governance in the Southern Mediterranean – Tunisia, Jordan - Joint programme with the European Union,

·         Turkey - Developing mediation practices in civil disputes – Co-operation with the  Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency (Sida),

·         Programme to support the justice sector reform - improving the functioning of justice in Morocco using the tools of CEPEJ - Joint Programme with the European Union.

It took note in particular of the will of Azerbaijan to extend the programme, and of the difficulties as regards cooperation with Jordan (limited number of activities with few results).

18.  It welcomed the new cooperation to be launched with Latvia and Slovakia, funded by the European Social Fund, for evaluating the functioning of their judicial systems. A possible cooperation could also take place with Bulgaria in the field of mediation.

 

19.  The Secretariat informed the Bureau that possible cooperation programmes funded by the United Kingdom would be discussed soon in London.

2.   CEPEJ Innovation Centre

20.  The Bureau encouraged the Secretariat to pursue its work to set up a virtual CEPEJ Innovation Centre which would bring together best practices as regards the functioning of court systems.

3.   European Day of Justice and Crystal Scales of justice

21.  The main event 2017 of the European Day of Justice and the Award Ceremony of the “Crystal Scales of Justice” could take place in Edinburgh (Scotland, United Kingdom), at the Judicial Institute for Scotland, winner of the Prize in 2015.

4.     Representation of the CEPEJ in other fora

22.  The Bureau entrusted the Secretariat to manage the various invitations addressed to the CEPEJ on a case by case basis.

5.     Co-operation with MITRE

23.  The members of the Bureau and the Secretariat had been informed that the US Federal Government-funded MITRE, which is apparently a not-for-profit  company  that  operates  multiple federally funded research  and  development  centres,  wanted  to  meet  with CEPEJ members and experts. MITRE had had previous contact with CEPEJ.

24.  The Bureau confirmed that the CEPEJ could not have official cooperation with MITRE - as with other similar organisations, but remained interested to follow the activity of this organisation.

25.  As  regards  the  participation  of  CEPEJ  members or experts in activities organised by MITRE, the Bureau agreed that it could not authorize  a  CEPEJ member or expert to impart to MITRE, or to any other  similar  organisation,  information  collected  within  the framework of CEPEJ activities.

6.    Individual complaints submitted to the CEPEJ concerning justice matters

26.  The Secretariat indicated that no specific complaints were received for further examination by the Bureau. However it noted the numerous individual complaints from Turkish former judges and prosecutors following the attempted coup.

7.    Any other business

27.  The Bureau agreed to celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the CEPEJ during its December plenary meeting (7 December 2017) and proposed to invite the former CEPEJ Presidents and Vice-Presidents. It entrusted the Secretariat to check who could be the current CEPEJ members who had been participating in the CEPEJ work since 2002.

 

The Bureau suggested to highlight in particular the interaction between the CEPEJ and the European Court of Human Rights and entrusted the Secretariat to check whether the plenary session could take place symbolically at the Court building.

28.  The Bureau decided to improve access to the various tools produced by the CEPEJ, in particular by proposing an electronic Bench-book enabling to accede more intuitively to these tools (the European Judges Bench-book on Article 6). This could take the form of an electronic index with key words leading to the relevant documents. It entrusted the Secretariat to further reflect on this issue.

 

Appendix I / Annexe I

AGENDA / ORDRE DU JOUR

1.     Adoption of the agenda

2.    Information by the President of the CEPEJ, members of the Bureau and the Secretariat 

3.    Implementation of the 2016-2017 Activity Programme

a.     Calendar of the meetings

b.    Appointment of the experts of the Working Groups

§  CEPEJ-GT-MED

§  CEPEJ-GT-EVAL

§  Steering committee of the SATURN Centre

c.     Evaluation of judicial systems     

§  Timetable for the 2017 - 2018 evaluation cycle

§  New tool to collect and analysis the CEPEJ data

§  New contract with the EC for the « EU Justice Scoreboard »

§  Peer review cooperation process (Czech Republic, Georgia, Spain and Cyprus)

d.    SATURNCentre

§  Information on the ongoing activities

§  Plenary meeting of the Network of pilot courts

e.     Quality of Justice

§  Information on the ongoing activities

f.      Ad hoc Group for the harmonisation of the definitions used by the CEPEJ

g.    Co-operation programmes and activities

§  Working methodology

§  CEPEJ co-operation programmes

§  Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans – Albania and Kosovo*^[2] - Joint programme with the European Union,

§  Programmatic Co-operation Framework for the countries of the Eastern partnership -  Azerbaijan and Republic of Moldova - Joint programme with the European Union,

§  Towards Strengthened Democratic Governance in the Southern Mediterranean – Tunisia, Jordan - Joint programme with the European Union,

§  Turkey - Developing mediation practices in civil disputes – Co-operation with the  Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency (Sida),

§  Programme to support the justice sector reform - improving the functioning of justice in Morocco using the tools of CEPEJ - Joint Programme with the European Union.

§  Possible cooperation with Latvia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Ukraine

4.    CEPEJ Innovation Center

5.    European Day of Justice and Crystal Scales of justice

 

6.     Representation of the CEPEJ in other fora

7.    Co-operation with MITRE

8.    Individual complaints submitted to the CEPEJ concerning justice matters

9.    Any other business

Appendix II / Annexe II

1. Working Group members / Membres du Groupe de travail

ü  Ramin GURBANOV, Judge, Baku City Yasamal District court, Baku, AZERBAIJAN – Vice-President of CEPEJ

ü  Adis HODZIC, Senior Advisor for Statistics, Secretariat of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, BOSNIA AND HERZGOVINA

ü  Jean-Paul JEAN, Président de chambre, Directeur du service de documentation, des études et du rapport, Chef du service des relations internationales, Cour de cassation, Paris, FRANCE

ü  Simone KREβ, Juge, Vice-Présidente du Tribunal Cologne, ALLEMAGNE

ü  Jaša VRABEC, Senior Judicial Adviser, President's Office, Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

ü  Martina VRDOLJAK, Head of the Department for statistics, analytics and strategic development of judiciary, Ministry of Justice, Zagreb, CROATIA

2. Deputy Working group members / Membres suppléants du Groupe de travail

ü  Mirna MINAUF, Senior expert advisor, European Affairs Service, European Affairs, International and Judicial Cooperation Directorate, Ministry of Justice, Zagreb, CROATIA

3. The following Observers can attend the Working Group meetings / Les Observateurs suivants peuvent participer aux réunions du Groupe de travail

ü  Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union / Conseil des Barreaux européens (CCBE)

ü  Council of the Notariats of the European union (CNEU) / Conseil des Notariats de l’Union européenne (CNUE)

ü  European Association of Judges / Association européenne des Magistrats (EAJ)

ü  European Expertise and Expert Institute / Institut Européen de l’Expertise et de l’Expert (EEEI)

ü  European Union of Rechtspfleger / Union européenne des greffiers de justice et Rechtspfleger (EUR)

ü  International Union of Bailiffs / Union Internationale des Huissiers de Justice et Officiers Judiciaires (UIHJ)

ü  Magistrats Européens pour la Démocratie et les Libertés (MEDEL)

4. The following authorities are invited to attend the Working Group meetings / Les autorités suivantes sont invitées à participer aux réunons du Groupe de travail

ü  European Union institutions / Institutions de l’Union européenne

5. The President of the CEPEJ can attend the working Group meetings / Le Président de la CEPEJ peut participer aux reunion du Groupe de travail

1. Steering Group members / Membres du Groupe de pilotage

ü  Ivana BORZOVA, Head of the Department of Civil Supervision, Ministry of Justice, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC –Member of the CEPEJ Bureau

ü  Ivan CRNCEC, Assistant Minister, Ministry of Justice, Zagreb, CROATIA - CEPEJ member

ü  Franscesco DEPASQUALE, Magistrate, Magistrates' Chambers, The Law Courts, Valetta, MALTA -  CEPEJ member

 

ü  Gerasimos FOURLANOS, Vice-President of the Supreme Civil and Penal Court, Athens, GREECE

ü  Giacomo OBERTO, Judge, First instance court of Torino (civil court), ITALY

ü  Noel RUBOTHAM, Head of Reform and Development, Courts Service, Dublin, IRELAND, Member of the CEPEJ Bureau

2. Deputy Working group members / Membres suppléants du Groupe de travail

ü  Ivana NINČIĆ, Consultant for Reform of Legal Professions, Ministry of Justice, Belgrade, SERBIA, Deputy member of CEPEJ and CEPEJ National Correspondent

3. The following persons can be invited as scientific experts according to the needs / Les personnes suivantes peuvent être invitées comme experts scientifiques en fonction des besoins

ü  Marco FABRI, Director, Research Institute on judicial systems, Research National Council, Bologna, Italy

ü  Jon JOHNSEN, Professor in Law, Faculty of law, University of Oslo, Norway

4. The following Observers can attend the Steering Group meetings/ Les Observateurs suivants peuvent participer aux réunions du Groupe de travail

ü  European Union of Rechtspfleger / Union européenne des greffiers de justice et Rechtspfleger (EUR)

5. The following authorities are invited to attend the Steering Group meetings / / Les autorités suivantes sont invitées à participer aux réunons du Groupe de travail

ü  European Union institutions

6. The President of the CEPEJ can attend the Steering Group meetings / Le Président de la CEPEJ peut participer aux reunion du Groupe de travail

1. Working Group members / Membres du Groupe de travail

ü  Joao ARSENIO DE OLIVEIRA, Legal Advisor, General Directorate on political issues, Ministry of justice, Lisbon, PORTUGAL – CEPEJ member

ü  Fabio BARTOLOMEO, Director General of statistics, Ministry of Justice, Rome, ITALY – CEPEJ member

ü  Anke EILERS, Judge, Appeal Court of Köln, GERMANY

ü  Nikolina MIŠKOVIĆ, Judge, Commercial Court of Rijeka, CROATIA

ü  François PAYCHERE, Président de la Cour des comptes de la République et canton de Genève, SUISSE

ü  Ioannis SYMEONIDIS, Judge, Court of Appeal and Professor at the Law School, University of Thessaloniki, GREECE

2. Deputy Working group members / Membres suppléants du Groupe de travail

ü  Gilles ACCOMANDO,Président du Tribunal de Grande Instance, Avignon, FRANCE

3. The following persons can be invited as scientific experts according to the needs / Les personnes suivantes peuvent être invitées comme experts scientifiques en fonction des besoins

ü  Yinka TEMPELMAN, Quality Manager of the Dutch Council for the judiciary, the Hague, THE NETHERLANDS

4. The following Observers can attend the Working Group meetings/ Les Observateurs suivants peuvent participer aux réunions du Groupe de travail

ü  Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union / Conseil des Barreaux européens (CCBE)

ü  European Expertise and Expert Institute / Institut Européen de l’Expertise et de l’Expert (EEEI)

ü  European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) / Réseau européen des Conseils de la justice (RECJ)

ü  European Union of Rechtspfleger / Union européenne des greffiers de justice et Rechtspfleger (EUR)

ü  International Union of Bailiffs / Union Internationale des Huissiers de Justice et Officiers Judiciaires (UIHJ)

5. The following authorities are invited to attend the Working Group meetings / Les autorités suivantes sont invitées à participer aux réunons du Groupe de travail

ü  European Union institutions

ü  World Bank

6. The President of the CEPEJ can attend the Working Group meetings/ Le Président de la CEPEJ peut participer aux reunion du Groupe de travail

1. Working Group members / Membres du Groupe de travail

ü  Nina BETTETO, Vice-President of the Supreme Court, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

ü  Anna MAROVA, Lawyer and registered mediator, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC

ü  Jean MIRIMANOFF, Médiateur assermenté, Genève, SUISSE

ü  Maria OLIVEIRA, Lawyer and Mediator, Lisbon, PORTUGAL

ü  Jeremy TAGG, Trainer, Mediation and Consultancy Services, West Wickham, UNITED KINGDOM

ü  Rimantas SIMANTIS, Head of the firm’s Dispute Resolution Practice Group, LITHUANIA

2. Deputy Working group members / Membres suppléants du Groupe de travail

ü  Giancarlo TRISCARI, Juge, Département de la législation, Ministère de la Justice, Rome,  ITALIE

3. The following persons can be invited as scientific experts according to the needs / Les personnes suivantes peuvent être invitées comme experts scientifiques en fonction des besoins

ü  Leonardo D’URSO, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of ADR Center, Rome, Italy

4. The following Observers can attend the Working Group meetings/ Les Observateurs suivants peuvent participer aux réunions du Groupe de travail

ü  European Union of Rechtspfleger / Union européenne des greffiers de justice et Rechtspfleger (EUR)

5. The following authorities are invited to attend the Working Group meetings / Les autorités suivantes sont invitées à participer aux réunons du Groupe de travail

ü  European Union institutions

ü  World Bank

6. The President of the CEPEJ can attend the Working Group meetings/ Le Président de la CEPEJ peut participer aux reunion du Groupe de travail