On 9 May 2011, the Association of the Councils of State and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the European Union (ACA-Europe) held its General Assembly, chaired by the President of the Supreme Court of Spain, Mr Carlos Dívar, pictured here (in the centre of the photo) with Mr Yves Kreins, Secretary-General of ACA-Europe (on the left).

The meeting, which is held annually, took place in the buildings of the Supreme Court of Spain.

The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland was welcomed as a guest by the ACA-Europe High Courts; it was represented at the General Assembly by its President, Mr Lorenz Meyer.

In view of his impending retirement, Mr H.D. Tjeenk Willink, Vice President of the Dutch Council of State, who was unable to attend this year's General Assembly, sent a letter to the President of the Supreme Court of Spain, praising, in his capacity as a founding member, the dynamism that has characterised the action of ACA-Europe and of its Secretary-General over the years in which he has been involved in its work.

ACA-Europe's activities for the rest of 2011 were agreed. A seminar is to be held in Dubrovnik on 26-27 May in collaboration with the Administrative Court of the Republic of Croatia; its subject will be "The new administrative jurisdiction system of Croatia in the perspective of the accession to the European Union: Exchange of European experiences". A second seminar will take place in Warsaw on 30 September 2011 as part of the Republic of Poland's Presidency of the European Union: its theme will be "The European Case Law Identifier (ECLI) and metadata: harmonising the referencing of national case law in the framework of the European Union". Finally, a working group will meet in The Hague on 24 November 2011, at the initiative of the Council of State of the Netherlands, to discuss the issues surrounding the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Building on this working group meeting, a colloquium will be organised next year by the Spanish Presidency. The main features of the colloquium were outlined to ACA-Europe members by Mr Luis María Díez-Picazo, a judge at the Supreme Court of Spain.

The projects relating to the databases managed by the association and the publications scheduled for 2011 were discussed, the judges' exchange programme was approved and ACA-Europe's budget was examined. Finally, the association's participation in principle, as an observer, in the new European Law Institute (ELI) was approved.