The 18th Annual Meeting of the German EJN Contact Points and 6th Annual EJN Regional Meeting in Berlin on May 9th, 2016 dealt with practical and legal problems concerning the implementation of the Directive 2013/48/EU of 22 October 2013 on the right of access to a lawyer in criminal proceedings and in European arrest warrant proceedings.
Thanks to the funding from the EJN budget the German hosts were able to invite guests from Austria, Luxemburg, France and Romania, who provided the participants with a very informative overview of the practice and the legal basis, according to which access to a lawyer is granted in case of imprisonment. A particular aspect of the discussions was the question of the extent to which the detainee can also renounce legal assistance on grounds of speeding up the proceedings. Besides, the participants received correspondent reports form the French liaison officer in Berlin and his German counterpart in Paris, with whom the German EJN Contact Points are currently cultivating an extreme close and effective cooperation.
Finally the German organisers were once again very delighted to welcome the Head of the EJN Secretariat, Mr. Ola Löfgren. In addition to his comments on the future projects of the Secretariat, emphasis was placed on the implementation of the European Investigation Order and the additional information required on the EJN website. All in all, the annual meeting offered all participants the opportunity to exchange experiences with the cooperation between the EJN contact points.