On May 6 and 7, 2021, Mr. Jean-François Thony, President of the Siracusa International Institute is participating in the online conference “Modernising EU justice system by boosting training of justice professionals”. The initiative is co-organized by the Portuguese Council Presidency and the European Commission.
The conference is mainly aimed at gathering the main stakeholders involved in training justice professionals (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, notaries, court and prosecution offices’ staff, prison and probation staff, etc) and to discuss on how to implement the objectives and priorities of the European judicial training strategy for 2021-2024 (published as a Commission communication on “Ensuring justice in the EU in December 2020”).
The conference is structured in plenary sessions and discussions in smaller working groups (break-out rooms). Plenary sessions will debate, among others, the new quantitative objectives of European judicial training strategy, the best practices for training needs’ assessment and the future of judicial training. Furthermore, the new European Training Platform “ETP” will be presented.
The discussions within the working groups will be organized along two sessions. The first will be tailored to different justice professions; the second will focus on several topics including the rule of law and fundamental human rights, the digitalisation of justice, as well as the Security Union and the Single Market. The full program of the conference is available here.
The event comes at a crucial time. According to President Thony “the European Commission strategy for judicial training is very ambitious and arrives at a moment when justice systems in a number of European countries are under heavy pressure. The training of justice professionals Is critically important to foster the independence of the judiciary and therefore to ensure impartial justice to European citizens. It is also crucial to allow justice systems to make an appropriate use of the new IT tools, such as artificial intelligence”.
