The Portuguese National meeting of the European Judicial Network that took place in Aveiro on 7th – 8th May 2018 was attended by 38 participants with the presence of Magistrates from Spain, the Portuguese EJN Contact Points, the members of the national Portuguese network, members of the Portuguese desk at Eurojust, and a representative of the EJN Secretariat.
In the first day we discuss the internal organization of the EJN CPs and how to perform the tasks of updating the “Fiches Belges”, the Atlas and other areas of the EJN website.
In the second day we discuss the role of several networks of European Union: Judicial and administrative networks, such as, the JITs, ECRIS, etc. We also focus on the actual problems of EIO execution and the judicial cooperation whit Spain.
Main conclusions
1. The negotiation of instruments of international cooperation should involve as much as possible those who will make use of them and have experienced previous difficulties or obstacles on its field of application.
2. Portuguese judicial authorities are still quite unfamiliar with the tool JIT. Having in mind its added value, the starting of a JIT should be encouraged and monitored in order to be used as a case study, with relevant share of best practices.
3. It is needed to formalize the network of regional contact points in order to give them legitimacy towards their colleagues and harmonize their activities across the country.
4. Meetings like this one should always preview a specific point of the agenda to address concrete cases and enable authorities to discuss them and find the appropriate solutions.
5. Training sessions of local authorities as well as share of best practices and identification of main problems on the EIO tool must be organized.