On Thursday, April 27, an international seminar "The judge and inert administration. Administrative discretionary power", will gather the representatives of the highest administrative jurisdictions of European countries. The Supreme Court of Latvia, in cooperation with the Association of the Councils of State and the Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the European Union (ACA-Europe), is holding an ACA-Europe seminar for the first time. This is the final event of the Italian Presidency of ACA-Europe.

"The Supreme Court of Latvia is honoured to have the opportunity to organize a seminar of this scale in Riga for the first time in cooperation with ACA-Europe. ACA-Europe is a unique network that provides an opportunity to share the best practices of the members of the Association and to improve the work of administrative courts in our countries. We hope that this seminar will be a good opportunity to continue learning from each other and will give us the possibility to develop uniform standards of administrative proceedings in Europe, ensuring the protection of human rights and the rule of law," noted Veronika Krūmiņa, Chair of the Department of Administrative Cases of the Supreme Court (Senate).

The seminar will be attended by delegations from 29 ACA-Europe member states, represented by the presidents, judges and legal advisers of the highest administrative jurisdictions of the member states, as well as a representative of the Court of Justice of the European Union. At the seminar, the Latvian Supreme Court will be represented by Veronika Krūmiņa, Chair of the Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate, and Santa Ozola, Legal Research Counsel of the Department, who is the coordinator of ACA-Europe in Latvia. Senators and employees of the Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate will also participate in the seminar.

Egils Levits, President of Latvia, will give an opening speech as the guest of honour. The opening ceremony of the seminar will also include speeches by Aigars Strupišs, President of the Supreme Court, and Carmine Volpe, Deputy President of the Italian Council of State.

The seminar will be held in three panel discussions. The first panel discussion will address issues regarding the exercise of discretionary power by the administrative authorities, as well as the scope of judicial review of decisions made by the administrative authorities in the exercise of discretionary power. Whereas, the second and third panel discussions will be devoted to current issues related to administrative silence of institutions and judicial control mechanisms in such cases. In each panel discussion, representatives of three member states of the Association will give presentations, introducing the audience with the national approach and experience in the specific issue. Representatives from Poland, Austria and Latvia will participate in the first panel discussion of the seminar. Whereas, representatives from Italy, the Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Bulgaria and Belgium will give presentations in the second and third panels of the seminar.

According to the agenda of the seminars organized by ACA-Europe, the host member state prepares and sends a survey with detailed questions on the topic of the seminar to the other member states before the seminar. The responses provided by the member states are summarized in the General Report.

ACA-Europe is a European association composed of the Court of Justice of the European Union as well as the Councils of State and the Supreme administrative jurisdictions of each of the members of the European Union. Latvia joined the ACA-Europe on June 15, 2004.

The main objectives of ACA-Europe are to promote the cooperation of the judges of the Supreme Administrative Courts of Europe and the exchange of experience on the practice of the administrative courts of the member states in the application of European Union law, to promote the efficient operation of administrative justice in the European Union, as well as to ensure the exchange of ideas regarding the rule of law in administrative justice systems.

 

Information prepared by

Department of Administrative Cases of the Supreme Court (Senate)

Additional information:

Rasma Zvejniece, the Head of the Division of Communication of the Supreme Court

E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: +371 67020396, +371 28652211