On 21 st February 2018, the 39 th Regular Meeting of the European Judicial Network took place in The Hague under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The meeting was chaired by Mr Tsvetomir YOSIFOV, Head of International Department at the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor`s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria. Mr YOSIFOV provided a presentation on the priorities of the Bulgarian Presidency and in particular a description of the activities related to the 20 year anniversary of the European Judicial Network to be commemorated during the upcoming 50th EJN Plenary Meeting.
The EJN Contact Points discussed several questions on the practical application of the European Investigation Order (EIO), with Mr Ola LÖFGREN, Secretary to the EJN, as moderator. Furthermore, the Secretariat received some updates on the legislative measures pending for the complete transposition of the EIO and the further steps on how to populate the EIO information on the EJN website was discussed.
Considering that the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) was a topic of discussion in both Plenary Meetings in 2017, the Contact Points also expressed their opinion on the form in which the EJN would like to address the outcomes of the 48 th and 49 th Plenary meetings and the action to be taken.
The afternoon session continued with a presentation from Europol on a project related to Cross Border Access to Electronic Evidence (SIRIUS) funded by the EU Commission and the potential contribution needed by the EJN experts. The Secretariat provided an overview on the statistics regarding the activities of the EJN Contact Points gathered for 2017, as well as the new functionalities available in the online reporting tool for 2018. The EJN Contact Points were requested to complete this exercise in view of the upcoming reporting period.
The EJN Secretariat also provided an update regarding the projects for 2018, the final budget execution in 2017, the work programme and budget of 2018, as well as the latest information available on the EJN Regional and National meetings for 2018, the Language Training and EJN awareness (website video-demo). The latest version of the EJN Judicial Library was presented and announced that it is now available online. Participants were also invited to provide their feedback regarding the information about the EJN on the BETA version of the e-Justice Portal .
Background
Once a year (February or March), the EJN plenary meeting is held at the premises of Eurojust in The Hague, the so called Regular meeting. Two EJN Contact Points are invited to the Regular meeting.
The Regular meeting has a different objective and role in comparison to the other two plenary meetings organised in the Member States. The Regular meetings are devoted to practical and organisational matters of the EJN or new initiatives on judicial cooperation. Its’ particular content is decided by the Member State holding the Presidency of the Council in close cooperation with the EJN Secretariat, the Council Secretariat and the European Commission. The Regular meeting is normally restricted to the EJN Contact Points only, but depending on the topic, other participants can be invited.
