On 29 April 2013 a delegation of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) visited Hungary accepting the invitation of the National Judicial Council. Paul Gilligan, president of the ENCJ, Horatius Dumbrava, member of the ENCJ Executive Board and Monique van der Goes, director of the ENCJ Office were the members of the delegation.

The National Judicial Council (NJC) gave the delegation a general introduction to the structure and operation of the NJC as well as the general state of the Hungarian judicial system in the National Office for the Judiciary (NOJ) on 29 April 2013 at a meeting where from the NJC dr Sándor Fazekas, president-in-office of the NJC, dr. Rita Kiszely Trappné, vice-president-in-office and further seven members of the NJC participated.

The meeting was opened by dr. Sándor Fazekas, president-in-office for the NJC, who welcomed the delegation and outlined the aims, the structure, the competences, tasks and operation of the NJC. He specifically described the most significant regulations concerning public announcements, information presentation to the press, freedom of information, transfer of cases and declaration of property.

Dr. Sándor Fazekas pointed out that the Council has proposed modifications of regulations in many cases, which were forwarded to the Parliament via the president of the NOJ. He gave details about the tasks of the NJC, and with regard to the proposals concerning court budget and their enforcement he specifically alluded to the tasks in terms of statistic data collection, case distribution and measurement of workload. He highlighted the fact that the NJC kept the recommendations of the Venice Commission in focus, and incorporated them into the regulations, for example when defining the principles for case distribution.

He said that the NJC has the broadest competence in the field of human resources, evaluating applications from executives and judges. He adverted briefly to the fact that the tasks and competences of the NJC have been significantly extended following the recommendation of the Venice Commission since 27 July 2012. The NJC has the right to consent during the evaluation of applications in cases when the position is preferred to be filled with the second or the third applicant in the rank by either the president of NOJ or the president of the Curia. Without giving its consent nobody can be appointed to be a president or vice president of a court who has already filled the position twice. Regarding this right to consent the NJC created an objective evaluation system. The related resolution was made in the first session of the NJC who voted for a strict regulation.

Four times out of five the NJC rejected the requests in this issue. The NJC passed a very strict resolution with guiding effect regarding the exemption from the prohibition of employment of persons with conflicting interests, in which a criteria system was defined to prevent employment of persons with conflicting interests at courts. There are cases when the Council grants an exemption for a maximum of 2 years from the prohibition.

Dr. Sándor Fazekas, president-in-office elaborated on the functioning of the Service Courts, informing the ENCJ that the Service Courts have been operating since January 2012 deciding in disciplinary cases. In June 2012 the NJC appointed the First Instance Service Court with 75 judges and the Second Instance Service Court at the Curia with 15. Dr. Sándor Fazekas highlighted the fact that the NJC has a separate budget from 2013. He added that during its one-year long work, the NJC made 99 decisions in 10 sessions. He alluded to the fact that under the provisions of law the Council should arrange a meeting four times a year, while in practice there are monthly sessions. Since the beginning the NJC has adopted 7 guiding resolutions of high importance that has influenced the administration of justice on a fundamental level. He informed the delegation about the fact that it is within the scope of competence of the president of the NOJ to appoint the 100 top court executives with a strong control from the NJC. He listed the elaboration of the judicial career model, the development of the outdated IT equipment, the improvement of the electronic processes, the renovation and construction of buildings as tasks for the future.

Dr. Tamás Sallai, member of the NJC, gave a presentation on the practice of the transfer of cases and its detailed regulations. Dr. Sándor Fazekas, president-in-office added that there is a related amendment procedure in progress at the Parliament, which was evaluated by the NJC. He pointed out that there is a designation of courts not judges, and the NJC established a strict criteria system for this process.

Dr. István Hajdu, member of the NJC, highlighted the importance of the strict NJC control over the applications of executives and judges among the competences of the Council.

Dr. Árpád Orosz, presiding judge of the Curia, covered in detail the influence of the activities of the ENCJ on the Hungarian legislation. He underlined the fact that the National Council of Justice could not solve several important questions, such as the disproportionate distribution of workload and the procession of backlog. Opposed to this, since establishing the NOJ and the NJC there have been positive changes in these fields.

In the afternoon, dr. Péter Bozsó, judge working at the NOJ, gave a presentation on the website of the NJC, its content, specifically its English version, as well as the availability of the ENCJ documents from the central judicial website, and from the intranet pages of the individual courts.

Dr. Ágnes Czine, head of the Criminal Division of the Budapest Regional Court of Appeal, and president of the Association of Consulting Judges of European Law, introduced the Association, described the work of the consulting judges, highlighting the direct support provided to other judges, and other ways of utilizing the knowledge acquired in consultant trainings.

Dr. Lajos Makai, president of the Pécs Regional Court of Appeal, president of the Association of Hungarian Judges (AHJ), talked about the tasks of the AHJ with special attention to the strategic role played in the judicial reform of 2011, mentioning the strategic agreement between the Association and the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice and the results of this co-operation. The delegation paid special attention to the presentation of the recommendations of the association that had not been accepted by the Ministry in 2011, however, that were incorporated into the law amendment act in July 2012 (competences of the NJC regarding appointment of executives and applications for judicial positions). It made a positive impression on the visitors that the AHJ had a significant influence on the construction of the new judicial system.

Finally, dr. Sándor Fazekas expressed his gratitude to the delegation for their visit, and asked for the support of the executive board of the organization to improve the international reputation of the NJC, the first step of which could be the strengthening of the role of the NJC in the work of the ENCJ at the General Assembly in June 2013.

Paul Gilligan acknowledged this supportively, drawing attention to the fact that during the meeting he acquired new information directly about the tasks and operation of the Council, on the basis of which he assured the participants that the NJC was expected to be an appreciated and valuable partner of the ENCJ in the future.

The National Council of Justice was a member of the ENCJ from 2004 to 2011. The National Judicial Council introduced itself at the General Assembly of the ENCJ on 10 May 2012 to the judicial councils of the European Union. At the General Assembly the ENCJ expressed its wish to count on the participation of the Hungarian Council in the work of the Network. The president of the NJC remarked that the Council would like to participate in the Network first as an observer then as a member. The General Assembly accepted the initiative unanimously.

The organization consists of 20 members and 16 observers. The observers of the ENCJ – similarly to the members – participate in the works of the project teams continuously, and the NJC took an active part in several projects in the previous years.