Signature of the UIHJ EuroDanube Charter with Miklos Krejniker, President of the National Chamber of Judicial Officers of Hungary
Michal Redelbach Elected at the Head of UIHJ EuroDanube
Among the group, Slovenia and Estonia had not been able to join the other partners, whereas Bulgaria had addressed a written contribution and our Ukrainian colleagues had send a delegation whose presence was particularly appreciated.
The general topic chosen for this great Premiere was articulated around “the state of the enforcement in the Member States of EuroDanube”. In this respect, each delegation was expected to express itself on two very complementary subjects: “the state of judicial enforcement in the Member States of EuroDanube” and “the Debt collecting companies: co-operation or danger?”
The organisation of this first edition of UIHJ EuroDanube had been entrusted to the national Chamber of Poland and to its vice president, Michal Redelbach.
The balneal site of Sopot, located near Gdansk, had been very judiciously selected to shelter the eight participating delegations.
As of the opening, on the initiative of Adrian Stoïca, member of the board of the UIHJ, the chiefs of delegations were invited to ratify the UIHJ EuroDanube charter and to elect the secretary called to sit for all the period included until the 2nd session of EuroDanube which will take place in 2009.
Unanimously, Michal Redelbach, vice president of the National Chamber of Poland, was to be elected to this function.
Claims of the Profession
The opening ceremony of the seminar gave the opportunity to the president of the national chamber of the judicial officers of Poland, Gabriel Pietrasik, to carry out a short historical presentation on the evolution of the profession in Poland since the period prior to the Second World War until 1997, year of the proclamation of “self-management”.
However, was to specify President Pietrasik, the evolution process is not finished because it is often amended. In this respect, the Parliament is at this moment seized of several amendments relating to the competence, the number of judicial officers, the tariff, etc.
Gabriel Pietrasik was to insist on the claims of the profession in Poland, aiming at obtaining a statute in conformity with the European standards and revealed, on this point, the study of a new project more focused on a harmonization with the other European statutes.
In the name of the Minister for justice, Mrs. Urszula Wieczorek, Head of the division of the notaries and judicial officers at the ministry of justice, was to greet the initiative of the National Chamber of Poland and to express her wishes in the success of UIHJ EuroDanube. This work on the compared modes of the statute of the judicial officers must be, according to the speaker, “a vector of research in favour of a unification of the profession”.
Mrs. Wieczorek recalled her recent stay in France at the National Chamber of judicial officers while being pleased with the lesson drawn from this mission directed by Andrzey Kryze, vice Minister for justice. She stated that many of the activities of the French judicial officers were ignored in Poland but that a number of them remained transposable: debt collecting, statement of facts ...
Being the reforms in progress in Poland, Mrs. Wieczorek was to confirm the will of the Government to widen the competences of the judicial officers while seeking to promote a more modern profession, conceived according to European standards. That would make it possible “to go towards a European unification”.
From this point of view, the national Chamber will have, according to the spokesperson of the minister, to play a considerable part within the UIHJ.
Without denying the existence of certain tensions within the profession, relating to the imminent entry into force (28/12/2007) of the law reform of the judicial officers, the director was to recall that the law on the judicial officers, already ten years old, required a legitimate update and deserved the implementation of new provisions ready to reinforce the credibility of justice near the citizens and to improve the effectiveness of the execution.
According to the speaker, it was important to increase the number of the judicial officers currently amounting to 652 for 38 million inhabitants, which was very insufficient taking into account the increasing state of industrialisation of the country.
The reform should not imply consequences on the activity of the judicial officers in place considering that, according to the wish of the Minister, the creation of new offices was to be done in co-operation with the National Chamber.
The Importance of Regional Events
Jacques Isnard, president of the UIHJ, was to insist on the significance of the event by inviting each one to measure the extent of the progress since the fall of the Soviet empire and the opening of the borders.
He declared himself pleased with the initiative which had been unanimously taken by the national chambers to create EuroDanube and thanked the Polish Chamber, its president Gabriel Petrasik and Michal Redelbach that he complimented for his designation as secretary of UIHJ EuroDanube.
Jacques Isnard still stressed the importance of these demonstrations in regional matter in which he saw a light of hope for the development of the profession insofar as “these seminars must take as a starting point the idea that they must be used for a better understanding and gathering while following two directions: economy and training of our profession”.
Arguing on future prospects while not denying the difficulties with which the judicial officers are currently confronted in many States, President Isnard was to show his confidence in the future of our profession, truly changing and trying to find its way, quartered between its status of member of the legal professions, auxiliary of the judge assigned to the public service of justice and its non monopolistic attributions, largely open on a competitive market.
The derogatory provisions of the European directive service aiming at drawing aside the notaries and the judicial officers of his field of application do not bring any new vision, according to the president.
Besides this first session of UIHJ EuroDanube an important event took place with the football international tournament meeting Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic. Despite a special training from their Coach Michal Redlebach, our Polish colleagues only came second after the Czech Republic.
