Permanent Council of the UIHJ in Crete

 

The UIHJ holds in spring a permanent council for European and American countries. This year, the Greek island of Crete, the birthplace of the Minoan civilisation, was chosen to host the thirty delegations from Europe and America. John Stacey, President of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice of the Council of Europe (CEPEJ) was once again in attendance, testifying by his presence the interest of the CEPEJ on good enforcement of court decisions and the profession of judicial officer.

Eftimios Preketes, President of the National Chamber of Judicial Officers of Greece, welcomed all delegations. He wished them a pleasant stay in Crete. Referring to the CEPEJ Guidelines on enforcement, "which drew the profile of the judicial officer," President Preketes stressed that the judicial officer, who had taken birth in Athens, was adapting to meet the current needs of our time. Charalambos Karpathakis, President of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Crete, welcomed the participants in turn. He reminded that the judicial officer plays an institutional role, an official agent who acts as the hand of justice. He expressed his desire to reform the profession to improve its level while strengthening its skills and activities. Zavra Diamanto, Director General of the Department of the Ministry of Justice of Greece for Judicial Professions, in charge of Mediation, said she was working with judicial officers and other legal professions. She added her relations with the profession had always been good and that she would follow the work of the permanent council with great interest.

Having Standards on Enforcement

John Stacey thanked the UIHJ for the invitation. He mentioned the CEPEJ which he chairs, created twelve years ago and representing the 47 Council of Europe member States. "The reason why we are so successful is although we cannot make countries do anything we actually use power of persuasion" he observed. Each country can use the work of the CEPEJ at its own pace. There are Member States observers, such as Canada, the Holy See, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, and the USA. There are also observer organisations. These organisations represent judges, lawyers, clerks and judicial officers. The UIHJ is an observer member since the inception of the CEPEJ and a permanent observer member since 2007.

President Stacey admitted that he had reservations about the aims of UIHJ at first, mainly due to the appearance of liberal professions who composed it. He acknowledged that his reservations were unfounded, that the contribution of the UIHJ has always been active and that its work was essential. He reminded that the UIHJ, represented by Leo Netten and 1st Secretary Mathieu Chardon, were involved in the drafting of the Guidelines CEPEJ on Enforcement and estimated that "without them we couldn't have achieved it”. He regretted that the Working Group on Enforcement couldn't continue, for lack of resources. However, he said that he managed the extension of the mission of the CEPEJ working group on quality of justice (CEPEJ-GT-QUAL) to enforcement, which is very promising news.

President Stacey expressed his willingness to have standards of performance and available tools. He referred to the 1st Global Forum on Enforcement, which will be held on 10 December 2014 at the Council of Europe organised by the UIHJ and the CEPEJ on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the CEPEJ Guidelines. "This is an opportunity to have access to CEPEJ experts, ministry of justice officials, judges...” he said. Finally, John Stacey spoke about the CEPEJ Reports on European Judicial Systems, which take each new edition an increasingly important role. The 5th report will be published in October 2014. The UIHJ has been consulted for the drafting of Chapter 13 on Enforcement Agents. The CEPEJ President ended his short-speech stating that he had spent a long time working with the UIHJ, Judges, Rechtspfleger, organisations and that changes can only be reached when working together and collectively.

Then the president of the UIHJ delivered a speech reproduced below.

Speech of Leo Netten, President of the UIHJ

What a pleasure to meet so many of you in Crete, birthplace of the Minoan civilization! This is the birthplace of Zeus, son of Kronos. It is here, from the union between Zeus and Europa, that Minos, the legendary king of the island, was conceived. The Minotaur, Theseus, Daedalus, The Labyrinth, Ariadne, and Icarus: these are other names celebrated by the Greek mythology, forever associated with Crete.

Greece is one of the seven founding members of the UIHJ in 1952 with Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Already 14 years ago was organised in Athens the 17th International Congress of judicial officers on the theme of "The judicial officer and Globalisation." The President of the National Chamber of Judicial Officers of Greece, the late Emmanuel Grammatopoulos had organised a congress that each participant remembers as one of the key moments of the UIHJ. It was the time where, from a simple association defending the interests of a profession, the UIHJ acquired the stature of an international leading organisation. It was the time where the UIHJ entered through the front door into the dawning 21st Century. There was a before and an after Athens.

I salute the memory of the no less regretted Avraam Pasoglu, who succeeded to Emmanuel Grammatopoulos. I salute our faithful friend, Eftimios Preketes, president for the second time of the National Chamber of Judicial Officers of Greece. I also salute Dionysios Kriaris, former president of the Chamber and Vice-President of the UIHJ. You see, Greece holds a special place in our organisation.
 
I welcome with pleasure John Stacey, President of the CEPEJ, who honours us once again with his presence, despite an increasingly busy schedule. We are especially grateful to you, Mr Chairman. Your presence is a message for all of us. This message is that inter-governmental organisations such as yours and international professional organisations such as ours are more effective together than separately.

I would like to warmly welcome our former President Jacques Isnard who came here to take the temperature of his 73 children in Crete. My dear Jacques, you are welcome in your family which is, as you can see, doing rather well.

I also welcome other former companions of the UIHJ and especially our former Secretary General, René Duperray, the man with the golden camera. If he was not so busy being retired, no doubt he would have been awarded a few days ago at the Cannes Film Festival.

I welcome the 29 delegations from Europe and Americas who have travelled far to participate in our work. Your ever growing presence shows your interest in our profession and its future in Europe and everywhere else in the world.

Finally, I welcome in our organisation the new presidents of countries representing the profession since our Permanent Council in November 2013:
- Marc Brackeva, president of the National Chamber of Judicial Officers of Belgium;
- Patrick Sannino, president of the National Chamber of Judicial Officers of France;
- André Bizier, president of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Quebec;
- Jean- Baptiste Kamaté, president of the National Order of judicial officers Senegal.

This main international organisation to which you belong is yours. It is your responsibility to make it evolve in the right direction. We are as always at your side to help you with the promotion and development of our profession, on all fronts.

Our work has already begun in Heraklion. Our board met on Tuesday. Two meetings were held yesterday. First there was a UIHJ-EuroDanube meeting with the delegations of this branch of the UIHJ. And second, there was a European Council of Presidents where we discussed three Stobra projects. Stobra 2 on the service of documents, a topical subject. Stobra 3 on the transparency of assets, also highly topical since the Regulation establishing a European Account Preservation Order Procedure was adopted on 15th May 2014 by the European Parliament and the Council. Stobra 5 on training, always a hot topic, especially when a meeting of European training is organised by the European Commission at the end of the month.

Last week's European elections saw an unprecedented rise of Euro scepticism and extremism. Is the European Union at stakes? We should analyse this rise of Euro scepticism as a strong signal initiated by those whose situation continues to deteriorate. However, we may be at a turning point, in particular when the stirrings of economic recovery face the crystallisation of a crisis that still affects many European countries.

We need, more than ever, to work together in a coherent and coordinated manner. We should join our efforts around a common profession, the judicial officer, whatever his nationality, whatever his continent. What we do in Europe should serve for Africa, the Americas, and Asia. What we do in Africa should serve for Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Everything is connected. Allow me to give you a recent example.

In Africa, we just won a great victory in a fight that we started nearly ten years ago: the harmonisation of African judicial officers through a common status, based on the one that predominates in Europe: an independent, trained and liable judicial officer, in charge of many activities that will enable him to develop and offer a better service to justice, individuals and economic operators. Europe has therefore served as a model for Africa.

In March this year, our project was taken over by the West African Economic and Monetary Union, WAEMU, which includes eight countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. After the meeting we attended, the Ministers of the WAEMU adopted the conclusions of experts and endorsed the UIHJ project. I quote:

" Given the specificity of the profession of public officers responsible for the organisation of public power, as well as the sovereignty of Member States in this regard, the meeting of experts recommends further harmonisation of national legislation in a gradual approach emphasising:
- The harmonisation at Community level of the status of judicial officers, including in particular the standardisation of qualifications;
- The creation of a regional training centre for judicial officers;
- The harmonisation of national legislation of the Member States. "
I would like to take this opportunity to warmly thank our Vice-President, Honoré Aggrey, and Rosine Bogoré Zongo, President of the National Chamber of Judicial Officers of Burkina Faso, for having attended the meeting and thus having made our long time recurrent dream come true.

You see, the best is happening. This African harmonisation represents a revolution for our profession. We now have two arguments on which we can base our legitimate demands for a harmonised judicial officer profession in Europe: the CEPEJ Guidelines and the WAEMU project. Both projects are part of a vision, a single political line led by your International Union, a vision that you have requested our board to implement with you and for you.

Since the Paris Permanent council in November 2013, our agenda has been very full. Our projects are numerous. We are being increasingly approached by international organisations and institutions on all continents.

However, the contributions for the UIHJ have stayed the same for twenty years. Some countries have chosen to pay additional contributions and for that we are very grateful. Some other countries have been reducing their fees or removing the extra fees they used to pay. This is a situation we have to face. We will soon have to make choices, as we have chosen not to publish our UIHJ-Magazine for cost reasons. Be assured that we do our best with what we have. But we probably cannot do more.
 
Yet the stakes are critical for our future.

Our relations with the World Bank are excellent. Last month, with Françoise Andrieux and Natalie Fricero, we presented at the World Bank in Washington our work on the Global Code of Enforcement. This Global Code was seen as a harmonisation tool, a factor of good governance and an answer to the financial crisis. Representatives of the World Bank were particularly attentive to our presentation. We will formally introduce this instrument on the occasion of the next World Week of Law, Justice and Development, organised by the World Bank from 20 to 24 October in Washington.

I have already mentioned in Africa our achievements with WAEMU. With OHADA, we signed a partnership with ERSUMA, which is the Ohada training school. After the summer vacation, we will organise a training seminar at the headquarters of ERSUMA in Porto Novo, Benin.

As you know, the International Union is a founding member of the European Law institute. For this reason we regularly attend its meetings. We do not intend to be a mere onlooker. Diana Wallis President of ELI, requested me to propose projects. Among these projects are the documents initiating proceedings and the Global Code of Enforcement.

Our relations with international institutions continue to grow and strengthen. At European level, we participated three weeks ago in a meeting of the European Judicial Network on the application of the Regulation on the service of documents in the Member States of the European Union. Following the publication in December 2013 of a report by the European Commission on the application of this regulation, we have made early January 2014 comments we submitted to the Commission. We were the first to respond. The Regulation on service entered its revision phase. We have always been present and will continue to be present to defend our interests and promote the superiority of the service of documents by a judicial officer, being by conventional service or through electronic service.

We are part of the European Judicial Training Project. We recently attended meetings and a meeting will be held in Brussels at the end of the month. The European Union has also asked us to participate in the Justice Scoreboard.

Our relations with the Council of Europe are increasingly tight. With the support of John Stacey, we integrated the working groups of the CEPEJ on Quality of justice and the Evaluation of judicial systems. Among the projects operated by the CEPEJ the UIHJ is associated with the South Programme in Morocco, under the section on the service of documents. We participated last week in the 5th mission of the programme in Rabat, Casablanca and Agadir. The Moroccan government has changed the methods of service on the basis of the recommendations of the CEPEJ. In this context of reform, our Moroccan colleagues have expressed to the authorities their willingness to change the status of judicial officers in Morocco to comply with the CEPEJ Guidelines on Enforcement.

Most recently, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) issued a report on the efficiency of enforcement in 13 European countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan). You will not be surprised when I tell you that this report has been based on the CEPEJ Guidelines on enforcement. Here is a concrete example of what we say since the day the text was adopted in 2009: the Guidelines on enforcement, in the writing of which the UIHJ actively participated and which fully reflect the positions of UIHJ, are THE global standard for our profession.

Together with the CEPEJ, we will organise on 10 December 2014 in Strasbourg, as part of the plenary meeting of the CEPEJ, the first Global Forum on Enforcement, on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the Guidelines on enforcement. The theme will be “The efficiency of civil enforcement proceedings in Europe”. This will constitute a major international event to which you are of course invited. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the President of the CEPEJ for putting at our disposal the premises of the Council of Europe in which the Forum will be held.

With regard to the Hague Conference on Private International Law, we are involved in the work on the Hague Convention of 15 November 1965 on service of documents that includes reform of the Manual on the application of this Convention and the possibilities offered by dematerialization in service. We participated in two meetings in The Hague this year, one in January and one two weeks ago. We are also associated with the Hague Conference in a project on maintenance obligations.

Now a few words about Asia and the Americas. In Asia, we held in Bangkok in March the first Asia Europe Meetings of judicial officers. We managed the feat to gather on the subject of the enforcement of judgments nine of the ten countries of the Association of the South-East Asian Nations, the ASEAN: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. This seminar was a huge success. It created an unprecedented dynamic and opens the doors for us to a large number of countries in the region.

In America, we signed at the end of January 2014 a cooperation agreement in Santiago with the Centre for the Justice Studies of the Americas, CEJA, an Inter-agency created in 1999 with which we have established contacts in recent years. I would like to thank Luis Ortega Alcubierre and Sue Collins for having completed this very important task as no less than 34 countries are members of CEJA.

We met a few times the director of the Laboratory of Cyberjustice of the University of Montreal, Professor Karim Benyekhlef. Based on our discussions, we will organise on 8th October in Montreal a major international symposium on new technologies, in association with the Federation of Trusted Third Parties of which the UIHJ is a member.

Thanks to the tenacity of Sue Collins, whom I thank for her long time dedication and investment, we have now regular contacts with the Caribbean. A month ago, we met the President of the Court of Justice of the Caribbean to prepare the groundwork for collaboration between our two institutions. Twenty countries in the region will be affected by this agreement.

Our first report on the efficiency of civil enforcement procedures is now in its finalised form. This is known as the “Aphrodite” project. We now want to set up a working group with the CEPEJ to work on indicators that will optimise our work and measure very accurately the efficiency of enforcement.

Our Scientific Council is doing well. It will meet next month at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg whose director, Burckhard Hess, is also a member of our Scientific Council.

Do not forget that next week, on 12th June, will be held the 7th World Day of the judicial officer. It will take place around the world on the topic of "Protection of Human Rights and the judicial officer." Thank you for reporting us what you have organised so we can provide information on our website.

Finally, our 22nd International Congress is getting closer as it will take place in a year in Madrid. We will see how the judicial officer can act to solve the economic crisis through a new approach to enforcement.

Because the economic crisis, as any problem you face on a personal or professional level, may have positive outputs if it forces us to challenge ourselves to reach solutions that will make us stronger. In the case of the economic crisis, the search for greater effectiveness of the judiciary is not an option. It is a necessity.

Fourteen years ago, the judicial officer profession entered the 21st Century during the International Congress in Athens. If you review the work of the congress, you will see that what we were talking about the, is what we do now in our everyday life: dematerialisation, electronic signature, electronic service of documents, public key infrastructure, trusted third parties, interoperability, etc.

Today we need more than ever trust and security to facilitate economic exchanges on a global scale. Judicial officers are at the heart of this process.

More than ever our Union is our strength. Once again, I thank our Greek colleagues and President Preketes to host the permanent European Council in the Isle of the goddess Europa.

Of course, in the coming days, we will work hard. But we will also relax. And for these two highly complementary activities, I know I can count on the great experience of our Greek friends who hold some surprises for us.
 
Also, it is with confidence that I wish you all a very successful permanent council and a pleasant stay in Heraklion.

29 Member Countries

Twenty-nine countries attended the Permanent Council: Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA.

After the call of delegations, the various items on the agenda were discussed. With regard to the relations with international organisations, Françoise Andrieux, Secretary General of the UIHJ and Leo Netten referred to the European Law Institute (ELI) of which the UIHJ is a founder member and the World Bank, which prepares its Global Week of Law, Justice and Development to be held in October 2014 in Washington DC. The UIHJ will present its work on the Global Code of Execution.

Concerning the United Nations Commission for the Development of International Trade (UNCITRAL), Sue Collins, member of the board of the UIHJ, participated in Vienna and New York in working groups, including on bankruptcy, with the aim of establishing guidelines. Concerning the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Jos Uitdehaag, First Secretary of the UIHJ, referred to the work of the Troika, in Portugal and Greece.

John Stacey presented the ongoing work of the CEPEJ and the Council of Europe in cooperation with the European Commission relating to the South Programme for Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan. Mathieu Chardon confirmed that relations with the Hague Conference were excellent. Then he discussed the ongoing work with the European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters (EJN). A report by the European Commission on the application of the EU Regulation on service of documents was published on 4 December 2013. In January 2014 the UIHJ sent its comments to the European Commission in response to this report. The UIHJ was then heard by the European Commission and did participate in May 2014 in an EJN meeting on this topic.

Luis Ortega Alcubierre, member of the board of the UIHJ, said he went with Sue Collins in Chile in January 2014 to meet with colleagues from that country. They have their share of problems. They also met with representatives of CEJA headquartered in Santiago. A cooperation agreement was signed between UIHJ and CEJA. Sue Collins mentioned contacts with the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) - thanks to Christophe Bernasconi, Secretary General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law - and the meeting with its president, Dennis Byron.

Regarding Asia, Marc Schmitz, member of the board of the UIHJ, gave an account of the first Asia Europe Meetings of judicial officers held in Bangkok on 20 and 21 March 2014. This event was organised by the UIHJ with the Legal Execution Department of Thailand. Nine of the ten ASEAN countries were in attendance: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The Hague Conference on Private International Law was invited to participate in this conference and was represented by Christophe Bernasconi. It was for him his first official mission abroad since his appointment as Secretary General of this international organisation. Marc Schmitz recalled how successful the meeting was. Contacts were established and exchanges with all countries present took place on the profession of judicial officer and enforcement measures.

Honoré Aggrey, Vice-President of the UIHJ, wished to give his testimony with regard to relations between the UIHJ and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). "Africa has become a laboratory, he observed. There must be free movement between countries but also free exercise and free installation of judicial officers in the 17 Ohada member countries”. He recalled that the standardised statute drafted by the UIHJ had not yet been accepted by the Ohada, but that it would be incorporated in the eight WAEMU member countries, the fruit of twenty years of work of the UIHJ in Africa.

Promoting UIHJ ideas through European Projects

Regarding cooperation projects, Bernard Menut, First Vice-President of the UIHJ, recalled that the UIHJ works in projects with the European Commission since the one he developed in 2003 for Azerbaijan. Since then, everyone wants to participate. "Through these projects, we can promote our ideas" he noticed. Ten years later, we do not have enough experts. Experts must speak a second language. They must be available for periods of at least ten days. The First Vice-President of the UIHJ invited candidates to declare to broaden the expert teams. Bernard Menut mentioned the project with Georgia, which was completed in 2013. The Ministry of Justice of Georgia has again requested the support of the UIHJ to develop a new Code of enforcement, which will be a great achievement for the UIHJ. He also discussed ongoing projects in Albania, Andorra and Moldova.

For his part, Jos Uitdehaag spoke about the many projects he was invested in, including the new project he participates in Serbia since September 2013, two USAID projects in Kosovo, and the EU project of a platform for Central Asia to facilitate exchanges between countries of the area, in the context of which he recently visited Tajikistan.

On cooperation with universities, Françoise Andrieux recalled that the UIHJ signed an initial agreement with the University of Mendoza (Argentina). A second agreement was signed in May 2013 with the University of Valencia (Spain). More recently, in April 2014, a third agreement was signed with the University of Constanta (Romania). A fourth agreement should be signed with the University of Montreal (Canada). Finally, agreements were signed with the Higher Regional School of Judges of Ohada (ERSUMA) and CEJA.

Jean-Michel Rouzaud, President of the National School of Procedure of Paris (ENP), said that the cooperation agreement with ERSUMA will consider strengthening the training of African judicial officers. "However, he said, ties should be upheld, cultivated and developed. Continents should not lose the links the UIHJ has created hand in hand with the ENP. "

The next item on the agenda concerned the work in progress of the UIHJ. Mathieu Chardon said a team had been formed within the UIHJ to update the Grand questionnaire of UIHJ around Patrick Gielen, judicial officer (Belgium), and Fanny Cornette, UIHJ consultant, researcher at the University of Delft (the Netherlands). Bernard Menut gave details on the work in progress of the UIHJ Working Group on execution (UIHJ-GT-EXE). The UIHJ-GT-EXE is responsible for preparing a report on enforcement in the Member States of the UIHJ. This report is based on the Grand questionnaire of the UIHJ, the various documents of the CEPEJ or the studies that the authors of the report have been conducting. The idea is to provide an analysis on enforcement and service of documents in different member countries of the UIHJ. It will highlight principles, guidelines and best practices, but also what does not work.

The activities report of the UIHJ since the Paris Permanent Council was presented by Françoise Andrieux and Mathieu Chardon. The UIHJ was particularly active: sixty events in the last six months.

The Permanent Council held its Council of European Presidents. An e-Justice workshop was organised with Alain Bobant, President of the Federation of Trusted Third Party (FNTC) of which the UIHJ is a member. Three Stobra projects were discussed:
- Stobra 2 on cross-border service of documents;
- Stobra 3 on transparency of assets of the debtor;
- Stobra 5 on training of judicial officers.

The scientific work of the UIHJ led Françoise Andrieux to report on the development of the Global Code of Enforcement. This work is conducted under the scientific leadership of Natalie Fricero, law professor at the University of Nice (France), member of the Scientific Council of the UIHJ. Françoise Andrieux recalled that the Global Code would be presented during the 3rd Global Week of Law, Justice and Development, held in October 2014 in Washington DC at the World Bank. The final draft will be presented at the International Congress of judicial officers in Madrid in June 2015.

Brita Norrman Prytz, judicial officer at the Enforcement Service of Gothenburg (Sweden) gave a report on the recent activities in Nordic countries. In Finland, there is ongoing work against black market. It seems to have improved a lot. The enforced sum of money has increased with more than 300 percent from 2012 to 2013. The main reasons for this are most likely the strong impact Finnish Judicial Officers have put in to defeat black market and exchange of information between authorities, that is Police, Tax Services, Customs and Enforcement Services.

Denmark puts a lot of effort in to shorten time bars for enforcement cases and to unite 24 courts way of handling these. These are one of the most essential tasks at the moment. There is a proposal for a change of law for enforcement procedure so that it will be possible to use debentures electronically and signed by electronic signature. Hopefully parliament will agree before summer-break.

In Norway, judicial officers are organised within the Police. Because of the terror attacks in Norway in July 2011, there has been a discussion about separating them from each other. The reason is that the police want to concentrate their efforts on police matters and not on enforcement matters. It is most likely that the judicial officers will be separated, but it is still a question how this will be organised.

In Sweden, the big news is that there will be new regulations admitting the judicial officers to use Internet for compulsory auctions. The new regulations will take effect from 1st October 2014. There is a proposal for a new law to open up for attachment of cars, where the registered owner is a “goal-keeper” and the real owner and user is not registered. This arrangement makes it possible for the real owner to use the car without paying any fees or taxes related to the car and without any possibility for judicial officers to attach the car. But after five years of official reports, this will now hopefully stop from 1st July and make it possible for Swedish judicial officers to attach a car for taxes and parking fees which relate to it. Finally there are plans for a Swedish conference in September 2014 and a Nordic one in May 2015. The Nordic Conference will have three issues: application of the European Convention on Human Rights in everyday work, education of judicial officers and research.

During the contributions of the delegations Aidos Imanbaev, representing the delegation of Kazakhstan, said the profession was established in 2011. According to him, the activity strongly develops. He recalled that several problems had been solved with the support of the UIHJ: "without your help and support of the family of the UIHJ, we would not have found a solution."

In his closing speech, Leo Netten warmly thanked Eftimios Preketes and Charalambos Karpathakis for their excellent hospitality and for the perfect organisation of the Permanent Council. This would continue in festive way, starting with a gala dinner that proved exceptional.

After reading a few verses of Homer, President Preketes paid tribute to three former members of the UIHJ who attended the Permanent Council: former President Jacques Isnard, former Treasurer Jean Christin, and former General Secretary René Duperray. "They have given us everything. They are our fathers. "