EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE (CEPEJ) 23rd plenary meeting Baku (Azerbaijan), 3-4 July 2014
EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE (CEPEJ)
23rd plenary meeting
Baku (Azerbaijan), 3-4 July 2014
Abridged report
A. FOREWORD
The European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) held its 23rd plenary meeting in Baku on 3 – 4 July 2014, within the framework of the Chairmanship of Azerbaijan of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The meeting was chaired by Mr John STACEY (United Kingdom), President of the CEPEJ.
The agenda appears in the Appendix.
B. LIST OF ITEMS DISCUSSED AND DECISIONS TAKEN BY THE CEPEJ
The CEPEJ
§ warmly thanked Mr Fikrat MAMMADOV, Minister of Justice of Azerbaijan, Mr Ramin GURBANOV, member of the CEPEJ in respect of Azerbaijan and the relevant authorities in their country for having invited the CEPEJ to hold its meeting in Baku;
1. Information by the President of the CEPEJ and the Secretariat
§ took note of the information given by its President, its members and its Secretariat who had participated in various fora where the work of the CEPEJ had been presented and discussed, in particular in the Czech Republic, Malta, and with the OECD and the IMF;
2. 2012-2013 Activity Report of the CEPEJ
§ agreed to adopt its 2012-2013 Activity Report (CEPEJ(2014)15) through a written electronic procedure, it being understood that the draft would be sent to the delegations before September 2014 and decided to forward it then to the Committee of Ministers for approval;
3. Evaluation process of judicial systems
§ welcomed the work achieved jointly by the members of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL chaired by Mr Jean-Paul JEAN (France) and the Secretariat to prepare the draft report which evaluates the functioning of judicial systems in Europe and thanked them warmly for the efforts devoted to this exercise within a strict timeframe; it thanked the national correspondents who had coordinated the national replies to the evaluation scheme and had fully cooperated with the experts so that they could submit a preparatory contribution of good quality;
§ noted with satisfaction that the report includes the results of a survey carried out in 45 European states, and Israel as observer, and can be considered as an essential reference tool to guide reforms of public policies of justice;
§ adopted the "Report on European judicial systems – Edition 2014" (CEPEJ(2014)16), subject to written comments, in particular on statistical data, being communicated by the delegations to the Secretariat before 10 July 2014 and taking into account the discussions during the present meeting; agreed that no new data would be accepted beyond this deadline; instructed the experts of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL, under the authority of the CEPEJ Bureau, to finalise the definitive version of the report which would be made available to the members of the CEPEJ on the CEPEJ restricted website no later than 27 August 2014, bearing in mind that no further amendments would be made after 15 September 2014;
§ decided that the Report would remain confidential until its official publication to take place on 9 October 2014 within the framework of a press conference and invited all its members and observers to strictly respect this rule of confidentiality so as to ensure the relevance and coherence of the publication by the Council of Europe;
§ decided to forward the report as soon as possible to the Ministers' Deputies so that they can take note of it, possibly on 8 October 2014;
§ instructed the experts of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL to prepare an overview of the report to facilitate its understanding and reading; this overview would be submitted on 27 August 2014 to the CEPEJ for approval, through a written procedure, and published together with the report;
§ instructed the Secretariat to organise the appropriate publication and dissemination of the report, including through its website, as from 9 October 2014;
§ decided to publish in extenso, on its website, all the individual replies of the member states to the evaluation Scheme; therefore it invited each delegation to check that their national reply appearing on the CEPEJ website had indeed been updated and, where appropriate, to submit to the Secretariat a consolidated version of these replies before 15 September 2014;
§ agreed to pursue the evaluation exercise within the framework of a new cycle, while keeping a biennial timeframe; therefore instructed the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL, in cooperation with the other working groups, to study the opportunity to revise some questions of the evaluation scheme and entrusted its Secretariat to adapt the electronic version of the evaluation scheme so as to take into account the comments by the national correspondents and the CEPEJ's members;
§ agreed, in accordance with its medium-term activity programme, to pursue the analysis of the facts and figures presented in the report, including by opening the use of the data to researchers who would wish to benefit from the scientific support of the CEPEJ, according to modalities to be defined with the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL, under the authority of the CEPEJ Bureau;
§ in order to ensure the highest quality of this essential exercise for improving the efficiency and quality of justice in Europe, stressed the need to have a statistician permanently based within the CEPEJ Secretariat; regrets that this has not been the case so far in spite of the procedure carried out by its Secretariat;
§ took note of the information given by its experts on the peer evaluation visits on judicial statistics to Estonia and Latvia, as well as of the visit planned to Switzerland in September, agreed to pursue the cycle of evaluation and invited members states to propose to the Secretariat candidatures for further visits;
§ welcomed the on-going cooperation with the European Commission to provide it annually with information on the functioning of judicial systems in the EU member states, based on the CEPEJ’s own methodology; invited the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL to pursue this cooperation which strengthens the CEPEJ’s preeminent role as regards justice evaluation, as well as the synergies between the European Union and the Council of Europe in this filed ;
4. Quality of justice
§ took note of the work carried out by the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL in the field of organisation and access to court premises, and the role of judicial experts in the proceedings and execution of court decisions; instructed it to pursue its work accordingly;
§ reiterated its invitation to the volunteer courts in the member states to indicate to the Secretariat their candidature for organising a coaching programme aimed at organising user satisfaction surveys based on the CEPEJ Handbook and invited its members to inform widely the courts in their states of this opportunity;
5. Judicial time management
§ took note of the work carried out by the Steering group of the SATURN Centre and instructed it to pursue its work according to its strategic action plan;
§ reiterated its invitation to the volunteer courts in the member states to indicate to the Secretariat their candidature for organising within the court a coaching programme aimed at implementing the SATURN tools for judicial time management based on the CEPEJ Guide and invited its members to inform widely the courts in their states of this opportunity;
6. Relations between the CEPEJ and the other bodies of the Council of Europe
§ took note of the information on the activities of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE), the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors (CCPE) and the European Committee for Legal Cooperation (CDCJ) and confirmed its availability to cooperate with them within the framework of their work;
§ warmly thanked Eberhard DESCH, representative of the CDCJ and former CEPEJ President, for his investment within the CEPEJ during the last twelve years;
7. CEPEJ’s participation in Council of Europe cooperation programmes
§ welcomed the recent launching of the Joint Programme with the European Union in Albania: “Support to efficiency of justice (SEJ)” through which the CEPEJ will cooperate with all the Albanian courts;
§ welcomed the forthcoming launching on a cooperation programme with the Norway Grants and Croatia to support court management through the CEPEJ tools;
§ welcomed the forthcoming launching on a cooperation programme with the Swedish authorities (SIDA) and Turkey to promote mediation on the basis of the CEPEJ Guidelines and supported the possible conclusion of new cooperation programmes for judicial ethics (European Union-Council of Europe Joint Programme) and court management (SIDA) in Turkey;
§ took note with satisfaction of the on-going developments for justice efficiency, on the basis of the CEPEJ evaluation, in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine within the framework of the Joint programme with the European Union for the Eastern partnership countries;
§ welcomed the developments of the Council of Europe’s neighbourhood policy with Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan where the CEPEJ plays a preeminent role based on its methodology and tools;
§ invited its members and experts wishing to participate in such programmes to make it known to the Secretariat;
8. Last developments within the European Union in the judicial field
§ took note of the information given by the representative of Greece, speaking on behalf of the outgoing presidency of the European Union, on the recent developments within the Union in the field of justice;
9. European Day of Justice and Crystal Scales of Justice
§ invited its members to forward to the Secretariat all information on the celebration of the European Day of Justice in October 2014;
§ noted with satisfaction that 18 candidatures had already been submitted for the Crystal Scales of Justice which will be awarded by the CEPEJ within the framework of the European Day of Justice which could take place in Aveiro (Portugal) at the invitation of the Chamber of Lawyers;
10. Round table on the digital recording of hearings
§ decided to postpone its discussion on the digital recording of hearings till its next plenary meeting;
11. Observers to the CEPEJ
§ took note of the information given by its Observers, and in particular the CCBE and the EUR, thanked them for their concrete contribution to its activities, in particular in the drafting of the report evaluating judicial systems, and invited them to further contribute to the implementation of its activity programme;
§ decided to co-organise with the International Union of Judicial Officers (UIHJ) the Forum on the execution of judgments in Strasbourg on 10 December 2014, in conjunction with its 24th plenary meeting (11-12 December).
