Strasbourg, 14 September 2016
CCPE-GT(2016)4
WORKING GROUP OF THE
CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN PROSECUTORS
(CCPE-GT)
Report of the 19th meeting
Paris, 26-27 May 2016
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 Prosecutors (CCPE-GT) held its 19th meeting in Paris on 26-27 May 2016. The meeting was chaired by Mr Cedric VISART de BOCARME (Belgium), President of the CCPE.
2. The agenda and the list of participants are reproduced in Appendices I and II respectively.
II. COMMUNICATION BY THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE BUREAU AND THE WORKING GROUP OF THE CCPE
3. The President informed the Working Group members on his participation, on 5-6 April 2016 in Sofia, Bulgaria, in the conference on the Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child[1].
4. The President went on to describe his participation, on 21-22 April 2016 also in Sofia, in the high-level conference on strengthening judicial independence and impartiality, and presentation, during this conference, of the Plan of Action, prepared at the initiative of the Secretary General and adopted recently by the Council of Europe[2].
5. The President underlined that he made comments during this conference to make sure that the application of the series of elements in the Plan of Action applies also to prosecutors. He suggested to the members of the Working Group to discuss what kind of follow-up can be given to this Plan, and reminded that the CCPE was regularly receiving requests for cooperation such as the provision of expert advice on the draft legislation relating to the status of prosecutors and exercise of their functions, and other assistance requests.
6. The Working Group members discussed their possible contributions to the process of implementation of the Plan of Action, and agreed that the CCPE should continue making itself visible, highlighting and disseminating its standards and their application in member states.
7. The President also reminded about his forthcoming participation in the Annual Conference and General Meeting of the International Association of Prosecutors on 11-15 September 2016 in Dublin, Ireland[3].
8. The Secretariat draw the attention of the Working Group members to the publication of the report prepared jointly by the Bureau of the CCPE and the Bureau of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE) at the initiative of the Secretary General entitled “Challenges for judicial independence and impartiality in the member states of the Council of Europe”, and also to the adoption of the 2016 Report by the Secretary General entitled “State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law - a security imperative for Europe”[4].
III. PREPARATION OF THE OPINION NO. 11 ON THE QUALITY AND EFFICIENCY OF THE WORK OF PROSECUTORS, INCLUDING IN RELATION TO THE FIGHT AGAINST ORGANISED CRIME AND TERRORISM
9. The President introduced to the Working Group the draft prepared by the Secretariat (document CCPE-GT(2016)3Prov1) based on the contributions of the members of the Working Group, as well as of the Secretariat, in accordance with the plan agreed during 18th meeting (3-4 March 2016) of the Working Group. First of all, the President thanked all members for their comprehensive contributions to this draft. He went on referring to the discussions of the Bureau members as regards certain aspects of the present draft such as its excessive length (23 pages) and some repetitions in the text. He concluded that, even though an excellent content of the draft was provided by the Working Group and the Secretariat, some editing of the form was considered necessary.
10. The members of the Working Group also praised the text based on the contributions from members and the Secretariat stating that, in effect, the resulting text was quite interesting and rich in information. The members of the Working Group also noted a need for strategic approach to the quality of prosecutors’ work, and that the quality was not simply related to getting convictions, but to the system delivering fair and efficient justice. The following aspects for developing the draft were mentioned: to introduce more clarity into its structure, to discuss how to optimise the use of means at the disposal of prosecution services, to mention the instruments of management of prosecutors’ work from the point of view of securing the necessary quality and efficiency, to highlight training of prosecutors as a continuous tool to improve the quality of their work, and other factors which may have an impact.
11. The members of the Working Group agreed that, at the same time, the draft contained some overlapping, and this should be avoided by streamlining the structure and the text. The above-mentioned aspects should further be elaborated and highlighted.
12. The Working Group accordingly proceeded to detailed discussion on the structure and paragraphs of the draft and considerably developed it during the meeting. However, it was also agreed that due to the length of the text, the comprehensive nature of the topic and too many aspects to be covered, two days of the meeting were not enough and there would be a need for the Bureau and the Working Group to further develop the text. It was decided to establish a drafting group for this purpose consisting from the members of the Bureau and the Working Group. Ms Alessandra GIRALDI, Mr Peter McCORMICK, Mr Harald RANGE, Mr José Manuel SANTOS PAIS and Mr Vladimir ZIMIN volunteered to work in the drafting group. Of these five members, Mr Harald RANGE volunteered to develop the draft based on the proposals during the meeting, and to present it to the drafting group for further elaboration.
13. The Bureau and the Working Group thanked its members who volunteered to participate in this important work, and agreed that the elaborated draft would then be considered and commented by all members of the Bureau and the Working Group, after which the Secretariat would prepare the final version to be approved by the Bureau and then to be sent, by mid-October 2016, to all members of the CCPE for comments before the plenary meeting.
IV. OTHER ITEMS
14. The plenary meeting of the CCPE would take place in Strasbourg on 17-18 November 2016.
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 CCPE and the Secretariat / Communication du Président, des membres du CCPE et du Secrétariat
4. Preparation of the draft Opinion No. 11 on « the quality and efficiency of the work of prosecutors, including in relation to the fight against organised crime and terrorism » / Préparation du projet d’Avis No. 11 sur « la qualité et l’efficacité du travail des procureurs, y compris dans le domaine de la criminalité organisée et de la lutte contre le terrorisme »
5. Any other business / Divers
APPENDIX II
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
MEMBERS OF CCPE-GT / MEMBRES DU CCPE-GT
Mr Robert BIEVER, Procureur Général d'Etat, Luxembourg, LUXEMBOURG
Mr Jovan ILIEVSKI, Head of the Department for Prosecuting Organised Crime and Corruption, Public Prosecutor’s Office, Skopje,“THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA” / “L'EX-RÉPUBLIQUE YOUGOSLAVE DE MACÉDOINE”
Mr Ramazan KAYA, Member of the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors of Turkey, Ankara, TURKEY / TURQUIE
Excused / excusé
Mr Antonio MURA, Head of Department for Justice Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Rome, Italy / Italie
Mr Peter POLT, Prosecutor General of Hungary, Budapest, HUNGARY / HONGRIE
Excused / excusé
Mr Harald RANGE, Karlsruhe, GERMANY / ALLEMAGNE
Mr José Manuel SANTOS PAIS, Procureur-Général Adjoint à la Cour Constitutionnelle du Portugal, Lisbonne,PORTUGAL
Ms Elzbieta SIDWA, Procureur, Département de la Coopération Internationale, Parquet Général, Varsovie, POLAND/ POLOGNE
Mr Antonio VERCHER NOGUERA, Deputy Attorney General, Madrid, Spain / Espagne
Excused / excusé
Mr Vladimir P. ZIMIN, First Deputy Head, General Department of International Legal Cooperation, Office of the Prosecutor General, Moscow, Russian Federation / Fédération de Russie
OTHER PARTICIPANTS / AUTRES PARTICIPANTS
TURKEY / TURQUIE
Mr Mehmet YILMAZ, Deputy President of the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors of Turkey, Ankara
Ms Sibel Demir SALDIRIM, Rapporteur Judge at the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors of Turkey, Ankara
Mr Zeki UYSAL, Rapporteur Judge at the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors of Turkey, Ankara
MEMBERS OF CCPE-BU / MEMBRES DU CCPE-BU
Mr Cedric VISART de BOCARME, magistrat fédéral au parquet fédéral belge, Bruxelles,BELGIUM / BELGIQUE - (President of CCPE / Président du CCPE)
Ms Alessandra GIRALDI, Assistant Deputy Director, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Copenhagen,DENMARK / DANEMARK - (Vice-President of CCPE / Vice-Président du CCPE)
Mr Peter McCORMICK, Prosecutor, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutors, Dublin, IRELAND / IRLANDE
Mr Han MORAAL, EUROJUST, The Hague,THE NETHERLANDS / PAYS-BAS
COUNCIL OF EUROPE’S SECRETARIAT /
SECRETARIAT DU CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE
Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law /
Direction Générale des droits de l’homme et de l’Etat de droit
Division for the independence and efficiency of justice /
Division pour l’indépendance et l’efficacité de la justice
E-mail: [email protected]
Mr Stéphane LEYENBERGER, Head of Division / Chef de la Division, tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 34 12, e-mail: [email protected]
Mr Artashes MELIKYAN, Co-Secretary of the CCPE / Co-Secrétaire du CCPE, tel: + 33 (0)3 90 21 47 60; e-mail: [email protected]
Ms Despina TRAMOUNTANI, Assistant / Assistante
Tel. +33 (0)3 88 41 48 39, E-mail: [email protected]
Ms Marie-José SCHUTZ, Assistant / Assistante
Tél. + 33 (0) 3 88 41 34 86, E-mail: [email protected]
INTERPRETERS / INTERPRETES
Mr Grégoire DEVICTOR
Ms Léa OUEDRAOGO
Ms Claudine PIERSON