Brussels, 22 November 2012: Meeting of the ACA-Europe Board

The Association of Councils of State and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the European Union (ACA-Europe) held one of its two annual Board meetings in Brussels on 22 November 2012. Mr Yves Kreins, the Secretary-General of ACA-Europe, gave an overview of the association's activities, with a particular focus on projects connected with the databases managed by the association, working visits by judges and cooperation with the European authorities, particularly in relation to the joint ACA-Europe-DG Environment seminar that took place the following day (23 November 2012) in the European Commission's Charlemagne building. The publication of the documents on the colloquium that took place in Madrid on 24 May 2012 was studied. The Board then discussed the seminars that will take place throughout 2013 (starting in Parma on 22 April 2013) on the role of administrative courts in the food safety procedures established at European Union level. Together with ReNEUAL, a network of professors of administrative law, DG SANCO and the Parma-based European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will address the link between administrative justice and food safety. Another seminar will take place in Paris at the end of the General Assembly (27 May 2013) and will focus on efficient, high-quality administrative justice. In addition, the Council of State of the Netherlands will be responsible for organising a seminar in September 2013. The year will be rounded off by a meeting with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The Board also looked at the programme of working visits by judges for 2013 and discussed the association's budget. The Board members paid particularly close attention to the matter of ACA-Europe's funding within the framework of the European Commission's multi-annual plans for 2014-2020.

This Board meeting was chaired by Mr Jean-Marc Sauvé, Vice-President of the Council of State of France and President of ACA-Europe.