CCJE-BU(2017)4

Strasbourg, 3 May 2017

BUREAU OF THE CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL

OF EUROPEAN JUDGES

(CCJE-BU)

Report of the 22^nd meeting

Paris, 8 March 2017

Document prepared by the Secretariat

Directorate General I – Human Rights and Rule of Law

I.        INTRODUCTION

1.          The Bureau of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE-BU) held its 22^nd meeting in Paris on 8 March 2017. The meeting was chaired by Mr Nils ENGSTAD (Norway), President of the CCJE.

2.          The following members of the Bureau were present:

·           Mr Duro SESSA (Croatia), Vice-President of the CCJE;

·           Mr Mats MELIN (Sweden).

3.          The agenda is set out in Appendix I.

II.       COMMUNICATION BY THE PRESIDENT, MEMBERS OF THE BUREAU AND THE SECRETARIAT

 

4.          The President and members of the Bureau provided information on their past and future missions involving presentations on the CCJE standards and activities.

5.          The President informed, in particular, about his participation in the official opening of the judicial year of the European Court of Human Rights on 27 January 2017 attended by some 300 senior judicial figures from member states of the Council of Europe.

6.          He also highlighted his participation, on 31 October 2016, in the seminar held in Oslo, Norway, on judicial independence, organised by PluriCourts, Centre of Excellence at the Department of Public and International Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of Oslo, and the Norwegian Courts Administration, in memory of Rolv Ryssdal, former President of the European Court of Human Rights. The President made presentation on the CCJE Opinion No. 18(2015) on the position of the judiciary and its relation with the other powers of state in a modern democracy.

7.          On 2 November 2016, the President also participated in the workshop on judicial independence organised by the Faculty of Law of the University of Bergen, Norway, and made presentation on challenges for judicial independence and impartiality in member states of the Council of Europe.

8.          The President went on to inform about his forthcoming participation in an international Conference on the “Binding Effect of Judicial Decisions” organised by the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic, in co-operation with the Ministry of Justice, within the framework of the Czech Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The Conference will be held from 19 to 21 June 2017 in Brno, the capital of the Czech judiciary, with the participation of the Presidents of the Supreme and Constitutional Courts of the member states of the Council of Europe, judges of European courts and leading academics.

9.          Mr SESSA informed about his presentation of the CCJE Opinion No. 19(2016) on the role of court presidents to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. He underlined the positive reflections by a number of Permanent Representatives of member states, as well as briefed the Bureau members on the questions which were raised as regards the CCJE activities vis-à-vis the Council of Europe Plan of Action on strengthening judicial independence and impartiality in member states, prepared at the initiative of the Secretary General and adopted in 2016[1].

10.          Ms SESSA also briefed the members of the Bureau on the publication in Croatia of the above-mentioned Opinion No. 19(2016) in national language.   

III.      PREPARATION OF THE CCJE OPINION NO. 20 ON THE ROLE OF COURTS WITH RESPECT TO UNIFORM APPLICATION OF THE LAW

11.          The members of the Bureau discussed the analysis of responses to the questionnaire for the preparation of the Opinion No. 20, prepared by the CCJE expert, Professor Aleš Galič[2] (document CCJE(2017)2), as well as the draft structure for the Opinion, prepared by the Secretariat (document CCJE-BU(2017)2Prov), and praised both documents as a basis for discussions and elaboration of the Opinion during the forthcoming Working Group meeting (8-10 March 2017, Paris).  

12.          The Bureau briefly discussed the modalities of the preparation of the Opinion and co-ordination with the expert. The Opinion’s subject matter – role of courts with respect to uniform application of the law - was emphasised as challenging and requiring a careful and thoughtful insight, taking into account a number of important differences among member states, including common and civil law countries.

IV.     OTHER WORK OF THE CCJE

13.          The members of the Bureau discussed the follow-up to the report of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe – 2016 on the “State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law - a security imperative for Europe” which proposed to “develop the methodology and establish a regular in-house evaluation mechanism on the independence and impartiality of the judiciaries of the Council of Europe member states”[3].

14.          The plenary meeting of the CCJE in 2016 welcomed this report of the Secretary General and decided that, as a follow-up, the CCJE Bureau would prepare a report on an annual basis focusing on judicial independence and impartiality, relying on information received from the CCJE members and on the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the opinions of the Venice Commission, and the reports of the Human Rights Commissioner and of the Parliamentary Assembly. The plenary meeting emphasised in 2016 that these reports would not contain ratings or rankings of member states’ performance and would not constitute a monitoring mechanism[4].

15.          The Bureau members discussed the upcoming process of preparation of the report in line with the above-mentioned proposal of the Secretary General focusing on the independence and impartiality of judges. In order to identify issues of concern in member states, relevant questions would be sent to all members of the CCJE, and their responses would be included in the report, along with relevant references to the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and documents of the above-mentioned bodies of the Council of Europe.

16.          In line with the above-mentioned, the Bureau decided that its report would be entitled: “Judicial independence and impartiality in the Council of Europe member states: 2017 - follow-up to the 2016 Report of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the ‘State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law – a security imperative for Europe’“ and that it would focus on five key areas: 1) functional independence: appointment and security of tenure of judges; 2) organisational independence: Councils for the Judiciary and the administration of courts; 3) impartiality of judges, codes of ethics and professional conduct and disciplinary measures; 4) the economic basis for smooth functioning of the judicial system; 5) judges and media: public discussion and criticism of judges.

17.          The members of the Bureau also emphasised that the preparation of this report would constitute follow-up to the Council of Europe Plan of Action on strengthening judicial independence and impartiality in member states[5].

18.          The President referred to his participation, on 3-4 September 2016, in an Extraordinary Congress of Judges in Warsaw, Poland, which discussed various issues concerning the independence of the judiciary and the National Council of the Judiciary of Poland. The President mentioned that so far, during the period after the Congress, there were no positive developments, and that the CCJE observers - European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) and the MEDEL (Association entitled “Magistrats Européens pour la Démocratie et les Libertés”) - made rather critical statements about situation in Poland.

19.          The members of the Bureau also made remarks as regards the ongoing process of re-assessing the judges in Albania and the process of preparation of new laws in Croatia on courts and on the Judicial Council.

20.          The members of the Bureau proceeded to discuss the questionnaire for gender equality prepared by Ms Aneta ARNAUDOVSKA («the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia»), CCJE Gender Equality Rapporteur for 2017. They praised the questionnaire and mentioned that, since it was very detailed, the questions could be grouped under relevant topics. It was decided to ask Ms ARNAUDOVSKA to identify a group of key topics from the questionnaire and to assemble relevant questions under each of these topics. The Bureau also decided to work further with Ms ARNAUDOVSKA and to see how to develop the methodology of the follow-up to the questionnaire after receiving the responses of member states.

21.          The Bureau also discussed the process of the preparation of the 2017 CCJE Conference which would take place on the eve of the CCJE plenary meeting, on 7 November 2017. As the CCJE plenary meeting in 2016 decided[6], this conference would be focused on the topic of the CCJE Opinion in 2018: “Integrity and corruption”. The Bureau decided, in particular, to invite, as a speaker, the President of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) and to establish co-operation with the Secretariat of GRECO in the process of preparation for the conference. The Bureau also discussed the framework of participants in this conference, in addition to the CCJE members and observers, and the topics including public perspective and openness of the judiciary to the public. The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe would certainly be invited, subject to his availability. The Bureau also decided to invite the European Association of Judges.  

V.        OTHER ITEMS

22.          The Bureau expressed its appreciation for the invitation of the High Council for the Judiciary of Italy and its generous support for the forthcoming meetings of the Bureau and Working Group in Rome, and discussed the modalities of these meetings on 7-9 June 2017, as well as other events planned within this framework by the High Council for the Judiciary of Italy.

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 32^nd meeting of the CCJE-GT and the draft Opinion No. 20 on « the role of courts with respect to uniform application of the law » / Préparation de la 32^ème réunion du CCJE-GT et du projet de l’Avis No. 20 sur « le rôle des tribunaux dans l’application uniforme du droit  »

5.      Follow-up to the report of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe – 2016 on the “State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law - a security imperative for Europe” and to the Joint Report of the Bureaus of the CCJE and CCPE on the “Challenges for judicial independence and impartiality in the member states of the Council of Europe”, and situation of the judiciary and judges in member States of the Council of Europe / Suivi du rapport établi par le Secrétaire Général du Conseil de l'Europe - 2016 sur la « Situation de la démocratie, des droits de l'homme et de l'Etat de droit - un impératif pour la sécurité de l'Europe » et du rapport conjoint des Bureaux du CCJE et du CCPE sur les « Défis pour l’indépendance et l’impartialité du système judiciaire dans les États membres du Conseil de l’Europe », et la situation du pouvoir judiciaire et des juges dans les Etats membres du Conseil de l’Europe

6.      Other work of the CCJE / Autres travaux du CCJE

7.      Any other business / Divers