The meeting was chaired by Mrs Pâquerette Girard, First Vice President of the IAJ, President of the European Association of Judges - Regional Group of the IAJ. In attendance were the President of the IAJ, Mr Ramon Rodriguez Arribas, the Honorary Presidents, Mr Voss and Mr Woratsch, the Vice Presidents of the IAJ, Mr Broekhoven and Mr Markel, the Secretary General, Mr Bonomo, the Deputy Secretaries General, Mr Meriggiola and Mr Oberto, the Assistant to the Secretary General, Mr Gargiulo, as well as the following delegates, representing their respective associations, which are members of the International Association of Judges and of the European Association of Judges:

Austria Mr Markel and Mr Reissner
Belgium Mr Denecker and Mr Henkes
Czech Republic Mr Filemon, Mr Novotny, Mr Pelikan, Mrs. Vodehnalova, Mr Vyklicky
Denmark Mr Knudsen
Estonia Mr Joks, Mr Kutsar and Mr Sarnet
Finland Mr Katajamäki and Mr Kiuru
France Mr Gendre, Mr Kriegk, Mr Lernout and Mr Pernollet
F.Y.R.O.M. Mrs. Caca-Nivolovska and Mr Miftari
Germany Mrs. Hammer and Mrs. Peters
Greece Mrs. Christofilou and Mr Sergakis
Hungary Mr Horeczky and Mr Lichtenstein
Iceland Mr Gislason
Ireland Mr Keane
Israel (observer) Mr Lindenstrauss and Mr Mayblum
Italy Mr Giacalone and Mr Mogini
Latvia Mr Bickovics, Mr Kinis and Mrs. Knegere
Liechtenstein Mr Mislik
Lithuania Mr Gudas and Mr Valancius
Luxembourg Mr Bour, Mr Gehlen and Mr Santer
Malta Mr Agius
Norway Mr Eidesen and Mr Elstad
Netherlands Mr Broekhoven and Mr Nÿenhof
Portugal Mr Reis Figueira.
Romania Mrs. Costiniu, Mr Noslacan and Mrs. Saitos
Slovakia Mr Bradac, Mr Majchràk and Mr Roharik
Slovenia Mrs. Betetto, Mrs. Tratnik and Mr Zalar
Spain Mrs. Atienza and Mr Garvin Ojeda
United Kingdom Mr Fricker and Mr McNaught
Sweden Mr Carrick and Mr Francke
Switzerland Mr Gass and Mr Zappelli

1. General Information:
1.-1. General Information from the President.

The President opened the meeting at 9.30 a.m. by thanking the Portuguese colleagues for the perfect organisation of the meeting and their hospitality. She added that she had decided to modify the agenda, so that points Nos. 3, 6 and 7 could be discussed in the afternoon, in order to leave to the delegates enough time to study and discuss the new documents which had just been distributed.

Mrs. Girard pointed out that, during the summer, the Secretariat General finished the collection of the conclusions of the Third Study Commission of the IAJ since the year 1980 relating to the criminal law. This document had been distributed to national associations. The President congratulated the IAJ Vice-President, Mr Broekhoven, who was recently appointed Director of the Dutch Training Institute for Judges. She added that the EAJ had recently received from this institution a letter envisaging a co-operation with the EAJ. The President expressed the wish that we would be able to start collaboration with this school of the kind that already exists with the German and French schools.

With regard to more specific information, concerning her activities, the President pointed out that after the meeting of Ljubljana she took part in a meeting of the Presidency Committee in May. During this meeting the EAJ budget was discussed. It would be the same for this year as it was in the previous year. Also the first meeting of the executive committee of the EAJ took place in Barcelona. This committee had been created in Ljubljana and was responsible for assisting the President in the management of work.

Mrs. Girard mentioned that in Ljubljana the EAJ had discussed the situation of the Belgian Association. Following this discussion she had sent a letter of support to the colleagues of this country. More recently Mr Delvoie sent her all the newspaper articles on this subject. Mr Denecker, in the name of the Belgian Association of Judges, took the floor and thanked the EAJ for the support at the time of the general meeting of the Belgian Judiciary, which took place this year. He spoke about the reforms affecting the Judicial Power in his country. He expressed also his concern for the project of the creation of a Higher Council of the Judiciary in which judges would not have the majority. He complained of the fact that judges of his country were not consulted regarding the creation of this organisation. Mrs. Girard remarked that the situation of the Judiciary in Belgium is not so different from that of certain Eastern European countries. She also reminded the assembly that the question whether judges should have the majority of representatives in the Higher Council of the Judiciary formed the object of great debates within the committee of the Council of Europe in charge of drawing up a project of charter for the European judges.

With regard to the situation in the Czech Republic Mrs. Girard mentioned that she had received a long official letter on behalf of the former Minister of Justice in April. Later, in May, she received a letter on behalf of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic. During the summer she received a letter form the President of the Czech Association, thanking her for the support given and reassuring her of the fact that the situation, especially after the new elections, had remarkably improved. Mr Vyklicky took the floor and thanked the EAJ for its activity of support and ensured that the situation of the judicial power in his country was no longer so serious as it had been before, especially owing to the fact that after the last political elections a former President of the Supreme Court was appointed Minister of Justice. The Minister had begun a dialogue with judges; the old projects of judiciary reform were put aside and the new government considered the adoption of laws inspired by the principles drawn up by the European Union and the Council of Europe.

Mr Sergakis said he had delivered to all delegates a document containing a question aiming at knowing in which countries the salary of judges is regulated by the law and in particular by a constitutional provision. He kindly requested the delegates attending the meeting to answer the question on the same sheet which had been distributed. Mrs. Girard pointed out the contents of Art. 8 of the EAJ Judges Charter in Europe as regards the salary of judges.

The President said that Mr Henkes had forwarded to all associations a request for study and a question regarding the problem of the direct transmission of the requests for mutual aid between judicial authorities. She invited the delegates to send their answers as soon as possible. Mrs. Girard said she had received a questionnaire concerning the "Yearbook of the International Organisations” asking us to provide information relating to our association. She asked whether we wished to be included in this "Who's who” of the international organisations. The assembly decided to answer the questionnaire.

1.-2. General Information from the Secretary General.

Mr Oberto explained the contents of the documents delivered to the delegates concerning the draft resolution written by Mr Markel. A first version of this proposal had already been sent to the associations. The new version was accompanied by a letter from the Danish delegate, Mr Knudsen. Mr Oberto gave also some information concerning the EAJ directory. With regard to the web sites of the EAJ he recalled that the EAJ web addresses are the following two:
a) for general information and the summary reports of the EAJ meetings: <http://space.tin.it/edicola/goberto/>;
b) for the magazine Euro Iustitia:
< http://www.droit.umontreal.ca/palais/magistrature/aem/journalvol1.htm>.

1 -3 General Information from the Editor of Euro Iustitia.

Mrs. Girard mentioned that the delegates had just received a copy of the third number of Euro Iustitia. She thanked Mrs. Tratnik for her work in the edition of the journal and Mr Oberto for his work in the translation. Mrs. Tratnik took the floor to illustrate the contents of the third issue of the newspaper, three copies of which had been sent on August 25 to each association. Mrs. Tratnik kindly requested the delegates to inform her of the addresses to which the newspaper should be sent. She once again requested all the colleagues who had promised to provide articles for the journal to kindly send them to her. Associations which want to have a greater quantity of copies should contact Mrs. Tratnik before the newspaper is printed. Mrs. Girard pointed out that the Secretariat General had proposed to send Euro Iustitia to all associations each time IAJ documents are delivered. Mr Voss joined Mrs. Girard in thanking Mrs. Tratnik for the work she had accomplished.

2. Activities in civil matters:
2 -2. The Brussels conventions I and II.

The President pointed out that the EAJ had taken part in the work of the expert group of the Commission with regard to Brussels I. The convention is now in the process of being negotiated within the Council and Mr Meriggiola recently took part in a meeting on behalf of Italy. She also told the assembly that she had received an invitation on behalf of the CCBE (Conference of the European Bars) to a congress which will be held in Warsaw on October 5-6, 1998 on the topic of enforcement of court decisions in civil and commercial fields. She asked whether there were delegates interested in taking part in this conference. She said she had a newsletter of the CCBE which was at disposal of the delegates.

Mr Meriggiola took the floor to explain the state of progress of the work on the Brussels convention. He said the E.U. wants to come to an unification of the Brussels conventions on the jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgements and of the Lugano convention. A commission composed of three jurists was put in charge of the matter. The E.U. also wanted to ask the opinion of the Supreme Courts of the European countries. The E.U. wants moreover to set up an action plan and an international convention on the matter of civil liability following car accidents. Mrs. Girard pointed out that civil and commercial judicial co-operation is a matter which had previously concerned the third pillar and that now forms part of the first pillar, following art. 61 of the Treaty of Amsterdam. That means that the Court of Justice of the European Communities will be competent on this subject. She recalled finally that the EAJ had been accepted as an expert in these matters and that in this capacity it had made some proposals taken into account by the Commission.

2.-1. The efficiency of Justice (Council of Europe).

Mrs. Girard reminded the assembly of our attempts to be accepted by the Council of Europe as observers in the working group called "Juridical Committee upon the Efficiency of Justice”. She added that on several occasions she herself, Mr Woratsch and Mr Markel had tried to obtain from Mr De Vel the status of observer for the EAJ. She had also sent the conclusions of the IAJ First Study Commission on the subject of the effectiveness of justice to Mrs. Killerby.

Mr D'Agostino, Assistant to the Secretariat General, said that he had taken part in the third meeting of the committee in his capacity as member on behalf of Italy; the committee, which had programmed six sessions in all, will be finishing its work in November 1999. He added that in its third session the committee did not consider the topic of the efficiency of justice, because the committee upon legal co-operation had requested the committee of experts to deal with the recommendation on the freedom of exercise of the profession of lawyer. The expert group therefore examined a draft recommendation on this other topic. For the moment the committee drew up a list of measures which could bring about an improvement of the efficiency of justice in the civil field. As far as Mr D'Agostino knew, no document of the IAJ had been distributed to the members of the committee.

Mrs. Girard proposed to await the conclusions of the First Study Commission and to send them again to Mrs. Killerby. She requested Mr D'Agostino to inform the EAJ of the state of progress of the work of the expert group of the Council of Europe. The assembly, on the proposal of Mr Markel, taking into account the fact that the contacts with Mr De Vel had not been successful, decided that the new president of the EAJ should contact the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in order to represent to him the difficulties encountered by the EAJ in its relations with the Council.

4. Statutory Activities:
4. -2. The Universal Judges' Charter.

Mrs. Girard said she had inserted this point on the agenda in order to give information following the discussion within the Presidency Committee, before the meeting of the Central Council; unfortunately the subject had not been discussed in the meeting of the Presidency Committee of September 5. She underlined the fact that all associations had received the suggested amendments.

4. -3. Next meetings.

Mrs. Girard informed the assembly on the annual congress of the ERA, which will take place on November 20-21, 1998 in Trier on the subject of the functioning of justice in Europe (title: "Citizens of the European Union and the European legal space”). It will be a very significant meeting due to the presence of many European politicians. The presidency will be assured by Mr Iglesias, President of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. The EAJ will attend the meeting and it will take the floor during the first day on the subject of the transborder communication between judges and on "freedom of movement” of the decisions in civil and commercial matters. The EAJ will explain, of course, its proposals on the convention of Brussels and the problems of the direct communication between judges. The assembly decided to delegate Mrs. Girard to represent the EAJ and to explain there the point of view of our association. Mrs. Girard kindly requested the German association to send Mrs. Dworazik and the association of the Netherlands to send Mrs. Pel. Mr Henkes said that a Belgian colleague will attend the meeting.

The President reminded the assembly that, as in previous years, a meeting of all the NGOs will take place in Strasbourg in order to prepare the Council of Europe programme of co-operation seminars with the Central and Eastern European countries for the year 1999. The EAJ had received in July the invitation to take part in this meeting, which will take place on October 15. Mr Cornu, of the Swiss Association, will represent the EAJ.

A meeting of the European Parliament will take place in Strasbourg from 21 to 25 September on the EPICOR project, which is an information network of the Parliament. Mr Meriggiola illustrated the advantages for the organisations forming part of this project. In particular he said that this network will give to its correspondents a direct access to the European Parliament as well as to the Eurlex file. The assembly decided to take part in this program.

5. Budget of the EAJ.

Mr Oberto illustrated the budget of the EAJ. He said that for 1998 the EAJ had at its disposal the sum of 5 million lire (approximately 5,000 DM), plus the sum of approximately 7,700,000 lire (approximately 7,700 DM) coming from previous years. The total available sum was thus of approximately 12,700,000 lire (approximately 12,700 DM). The 1998 issues of the newspaper Euro Iustitia had already been paid.

4. -1. The European Judges' Charter (Council of Europe).

Mrs. Girard pointed out that after the meeting in Ljubljana the Secretariat General received a preliminary draft of the European Charter for judges. The EAJ had not yet received the final version of this text, adopted by the expert group at its meetings of July 1998. This document will be distributed as soon as it will be available to the Secretariat. The assembly decided to request the Council of Europe to send the final version of this document.

3. Activities in criminal matters:
3. -1. International co-operation in criminal matters.

The President pointed that a conference will take place in Paris on 4-6 November, 1998, organised by the ENM, the DRA, the ERA, the MEDEL and the EAJ on the topic: "Towards an European Legal Space. Judicial Co-operation in Penal Matters”. The EAJ will be represented by the Dutch colleague, Mr Ariens, who will speak about rogatory letters, extradition and direct contacts between the ministries of justice. In the second part of the meeting the subject of Europole will be discussed. Finally the conference will deal with the topic of practical difficulties met by judges in this field. Here the EAJ will be represented by our colleague from Luxembourg, Mr Janonis. An English colleague will also attend the meeting. The Corpus Juris will be explained by Mr Spencer of Cambridge University. The "Appel de Genève” will be discussed by Mr Bruti Liberati and Mr Bertossa. Mrs. Girard explained that it would be necessary to send a colleague to speak about our declaration which is in opposition to the "Appel de Genève".

Mr Markel explained the contents of his draft proposal, which had just been delivered in its new version. A very long discussion followed, during which Mr Markel said he preferred that the declaration was adopted unanimously, even if that meant the adoption of the amendments suggested by Mr Knudsen. At the end of the debate the assembly unanimously decided to adopt the proposal of Mr Markel with the amendments presented by Mr Knudsen (text of the declaration in enclosure). Mr Markel will represent the EAJ in the meeting in Paris, in order to present and to illustrate the adopted declaration; the declaration will also be translated into German by Mr Markel, as well as into French.

3. -2. The European Public Prosecutor.

Mrs. Girard said that the EAJ will not present a paper in Paris upon the topic of the European Public Prosecutor; this subject will be dealt with by Mr Spencer of Cambridge University. Mr Woratsch complained of having received very limited collaboration from associations which in Ljubljana had promised their assistance to the working group co-ordinated by himself. In fact he had received only three reports. He drafted a report in English, which was delivered to the delegates. A debate followed the presentation of Mr Woratsch. Mrs. Girard reminded the assembly that the conference will be open to all the countries of the E.U., as well as to ten judges from European countries not being part of the Union. The delegate of Norway said that his association was waiting for an official invitation. Mr Woratsch will also take part in the meeting in Paris.

6. Functioning of the EAJ.

The President mentioned the decision adopted in Ljubljana concerning the creation of an executive committee. She added that during the meeting of this committee which took place immediately before the meeting of the EAJ in Porto, the panel dealt with the problem of the appointment of the new President of EAJ. A debate on this subject followed, during which several delegates expressed the opinion according to which the statute of the IAJ would not prevent the possibility of an election of the Presidents of the regional groups by the same groups. At the end of the debate the President - assisted by the Secretariat General - took note of the presence in the room of 27 delegations with the right to vote. The assembly decided, with a majority of 15 votes out of 27 delegations attending the meeting at the moment of the vote, to proceed to an election in order to indicate to the IAJ Presidency Committee an IAJ Vice President to become the EAJ future President. The vote would take place on Thursday September 10 at 9 a.m.

4.3. The Next Meetings of EAJ.

Mr Kriegk took the floor to announce that the French Association would be ready to organise the next EAJ meeting during the Spring of 1999. The venue and date of this meeting will be communicated to associations later. Mr Vyklicky said that the Association of the Judges of the Czech Republic would organise the meeting of Spring of 2000 in Prague, during the month of May.

7. Conclusions of the President.

At the end of the meeting the President reminded the assembly that this was her last meeting as EAJ President, after four years at the head of our Association. She expressed her thanks to all the delegates attending the meeting, to the colleagues who worked in the various working groups, as well as to the Secretariat General of the IAJ. She pointed out the way the EAJ had gone through these four years, during which our Association has remarkably increased its activities and its importance.

The Honorary President of the IAJ Mr Woratsch, on behalf of the assembly, addressed to Mrs. Girard the most cordial thanks for her enthusiastically accomplished work in her capacity as President of the EAJ during these last four years.

The meeting was closed at 6 p.m.

On 10 September 1998, at 9 a.m. the meeting was chaired by the President of IAJ, Mrs. Girard, with the participation of the Honorary Presidents, Mr Voss and Mr Woratsch, of the IAJ Vice-Presidents Mr Broekhoven, Mr Francke, Mr Markel and Mr Reis Figueira, of the Deputy Secretary General, Mr Oberto, as well as the following delegates, representing their respective associations, which are members of the International Association of Judges and of the European Association of Judges:

Austria Mr Reissner
Belgium Mr Henkes
Czech Republic Mr Vyklicky
Denmark Mr Knudsen
Estonia Mr Joks, Mr Kutsar
Finland Mr Katajamäki and Mr Kiuru
France Mr Kriegk
F.Y.R.O.M. Mrs. Caca-Nivolovska
Germany Mrs. Peters
Greece Mr Sergakis
Hungary Mr Horeczky and Mr Lichtenstein
Iceland Mr Gislason
Israel (observer) Mr Lindenstrauss
Italy Mr Giacalone and Mr Mogini
Latvia Mr Bickovics, Mr Kinis and Mrs. Knegere
Liechtenstein Mr Mislik
Lithuania Mr Gudas and Mr Valancius
Luxembourg Mr Bour
Malta Mr Agius
Norway Mr Eidesen and Mr Elstad
Netherlands Mr Nÿenhof
Portugal Mr Reis Figueira.
Romania Mrs. Costiniu
Slovakia Mr Majchràk
Slovenia Mrs. Betetto, Mrs. Tratnik and Mr Zalar
Spain Mrs. Atienza
United Kingdom Mr McNaught
Sweden Mr Carrick
Switzerland Mr Gass and Mr Zappelli

The President of the IAJ informed the assembly of the decisions adopted by the Presidency Committee with regard to the designation of the Presidents of the other regional groups. She mentioned that Israel, being an observer, could not vote. Mr Lindenstrauss (Israel) and Mr Henkes (Belgium) were responsible for controlling the polls. The three Vice Presidents candidates for the election, i.e. Mr Broekhoven, Mr Francke and Mr Markel (Mr Reis Figueira, having been appointed president of the Ibero-American Group of the IAJ, did not candidate himself), briefly addressed the assembly. Mr Francke said he did not to want to candidate himself. The assembly voted in secret for the Chairman. Mr Markel (19 votes) was appointed President of the EAJ.

The meeting was closed at 10 a.m.