Brussels, 21 and 22 November 2013: Assises de la Justice

On 21 and 22 November 2013, the European Commission Directorate-General for Justice organised the ‘Assises de la Justice’ conference at the Charlemagne Building in Brussels. ACA-Europe participated in two of the event’s debates: Vice-President of the French Council of State and President of ACA-Europe J.-M. Sauvé spoke during the ‘Rule of Law’ debate, while Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic Judge Z. Kuhn, representing Czech Republic Supreme Administrative Court President and ACA-Europe Vice-President J. Baxa, and Secretary-general of ACA-Europe Y. Kreins contributed to the ‘EU Administrative Law and National Administrations’ discussion.

In his speech, J.-M. Sauvé addressed the issue of what mechanisms currently exist to safeguard the rule of law, which is one of the European Union’s key responsibilities. He also outlined criteria for when suitable arbitration by the European Union of breaches of this basic principle in the Member States is required.

In his contribution, Y. Kreins explained ACA-Europe’s place in the administrative court landscape, describing some of the initiatives it takes to promote and disseminate European law among the 33 Supreme Administrative Courts – including the Court of Justice of the European Union – that are members of the association. He also expressed the hope that the European Commission’s policies relating to justice from 2014 to 2020 would give more importance to national administrative courts, which are after all the primary courts enforcing European law.