Doc. 8191

14 September 1998

Progress of the Assembly’s monitoring procedures (April 1997 – April 1998)

Reply to Recommendation 1366 (1998)

from the Committee of Ministers adopted at the 639th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (7-9 September 1998)

The Committee of Ministers has taken careful note of Recommendation 1366 (1998) of the Parliamentary Assembly on progress of the Assembly’s monitoring procedures (April 1997 – April 1998).

It stresses that it has been giving and will continue to give priority to adopting replies to recommendations on monitoring.

Thus the Committee of Ministers has, in the current year, adopted replies to:

-       Recommendation 1298 (1996) on Turkey’s respect of commitments to constitutional and legislative reforms (follow-up to Recommendation 1266 (1995)),

-       Recommendation 1312 (1997) on honouring of obligations and commitments by Albania,

-       Recommendation 1326 (1997) on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Romania,

-       Recommendation 1338 (1997) on the obligations and commitments of the Czech Republic as a member State,

-       Recommendation 1339 (1997) on the obligations and commitments of Lithuania as a member State.

Moreover, the Committee of Ministers has decided no longer to classify its monitoring documents as secret but as confidential.

On the initiative of the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, a first informal meeting has taken place between the Chairman-in-Office and the Chairman of the Assembly’s Monitoring Committee, and a member of that Committee’s Bureau. This meeting was positively evaluated on both sides.

The Committee of Ministers, meeting at Deputy level in April 1998, decided to re-adjust and streamline its monitoring procedure, among other things with regard to its dialogue with the Parliamentary Assembly (for more information, consult document Monitor/Inf(98)1).

In this connection it decided that annual consultation in the Joint Committee will be supplemented by informal contacts between the Chairman-in-Office and the Assembly’s Monitoring Committee, and that exchange of information on a confidential basis is envisaged, with due regard being taken of the essentially different but complementary nature of the two monitoring procedures.

On the same occasion it was decided that the Parliamentary Assembly would be informed of any follow-up action decided upon.

The following action was decided by the Deputies at their 639th meeting (September 1998), with regard to the subject “Functioning of the judicial system”:

-       to invite the European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ), in consultation with the Bureau of the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC), to present proposals to amend the terms of reference of the Committee of Experts on the Efficiency of Justice (CJ-EJ) as from 1999 and to enlarge the membership of that Committee to include all 40 member States of the Council of Europe, so as to entrust the CJ-EJ with identifying concrete ways to enable member States to improve the functioning of their judicial systems, especially as regards access to justice, independence and impartiality of the judiciary and effectiveness of judicial remedies;

-       to instruct the CJ-EJ to organise a Colloquy on European Law on the profession of lawyer with special emphasis on the access to lawyers and the organisation of the legal profession;

-       to invite the CDCJ and the CDPC to present proposals concerning the follow-up to be given to Recommendation No. (94) 12 on the independence, efficiency and role of judges and the 1999 Conference of European Ministers of Justice on the independence and impartiality of judges;

-       to invite the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) to examine the experience acquired by member States in applying the principles outlined in Recommendation No. R (93) 1 of the Committee of Ministers on effective access to the law and to justice for the very poor and, where appropriate, to identify reasons for difficulty to abide by these principles;

-       to invite delegations to the Consultation and Planning Meeting for the Activities for the Development and Consolidation of Democratic Stability (ADACS) programme (14 to 16 October 1998) and the bilateral meetings taking place in this connection, to take into account, when it comes to selecting activities for 1999, the (former) Chairman’s summing-up of discussions at their 630th (in camera) meeting as well as their subsequent discussions on the functioning of the judicial system, also taking account of ongoing intergovernmental activities in the field of the efficiency of justice;

-       to review the results of these activities at a future date.