The Association of the Councils of State and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the European Union (ACA-Europe) held its General Assembly on 26 June 2012. It was chaired by Mr Juan Antonio Xiol, President of the Supreme Court of Spain (in the middle of the photo), pictured here with Mr Yves Kreins, Secretary-General of ACA-Europe (in the left of the photo) and Mr Jean-Marc Sauvé, Vice-President of the French Council of State and Vice-President of ACA-Europe (in the right of the photo).

This annual meeting was held on the premises of the Spanish Supreme Court.

Decisions were made regarding ACA-Europe's activities for 2012-2013. Thus it was decided that a seminar would be held in Brussels on 23 November 2012, with the cooperation of the European Commission's Environment DG, and would be run by the French Council of State. The seminar's subject would be "Citizens' access to justice and judicial bodies in environmental matters – national particularities and influences of European Union law". The principle of holding a second seminar was approved too: it would take place in the first quarter of 2013 and would be organised in cooperation with ReNEUAL, a network of professors of European administrative law. It would address the specific topic of the role of the administrative courts in the food safety procedures established at European Union level.

The projects relating to the databases managed by ACA-Europe and the publications due to be released in 2012 were discussed, the programme of working visits by judges for 2012 was communicated and ACA-Europe's budget was examined, as was its funding within the framework of the European Commission's multi-annual plans for 2014-2020, a point to which the association's 31 members and observers paid close attention.

The General Assembly elected Mr Jean-Marc Sauvé, Vice-President of the Council of State of France, to be President of ACA-Europe for a two-year term. Mr Georges Ravarani, who completed his term as Vice-President of ACA-Europe, was thanked for his dynamic and very valuable contributions to the association's work and Mr Josef Baxa, President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Czech Republic was elected Vice-President. The terms of office of the other Board members were extended for two years.

Mr Jean-Marc Sauvé closed the General Assembly meeting by saying that he would like to organise a seminar after the next General Assembly meeting, which would take place in Paris in 2013. This suggestion met with the approval of all participants.