EJTN organised a meeting of EJTN Associate Members on 28 and 29 November 2023. The activity was hosted by the French National School of Clerks and attended by representatives from all EJTN Associate Members, i.e. France’s National School of Clerks, Italy’s Italian Ministry of Justice, Malta’s Court Services Agency, Portugal’s Ministry of Justice (Directorate-General of Justice Administration) and Romania’s National School of Clerks.
This event gave EJTN’s Associate Members a unique opportunity to meet and strengthen their relations in person. It also provided them a platform to build their capacity, as organisations training solely court staff, by exploring each other’s national judicial training system, their specificities, and national initiatives about the training needs of court staff.
On this occasion, the representatives also focused on court staff’s training needs at a European level. They brainstormed on the integration of court staff within EJTN activities and identified critical areas for developing training activities for court staff. The importance of training court staff trainers and court staff managers as multipliers were emphasised.
EJTN Members and Associate Members will address court staff training needs in the coming year, notably during the upcoming EJTN’s annual training needs assessment foreseen in January 2024. Moreover, dedicated discussions will be organised during the EJTN national contact points meetings and Working group meetings, where the conclusions of this meeting will serve as a valuable source of information for future training opportunities for court staff.
EJTN participating Associate Members
• France – National School of Clerks
• Italy – Ministry of Justice
• Malta – Court Services Agency
• Portugal – Directorate-General of Justice Administration
• Romania – National School of Clerks
About EJTN’s activities in the area of court staff integration
While ensuring quality training activities for judges and prosecutors, EJTN extended its target audience to court and prosecution staff with the adoption of its Strategic Plan 2021-2027: “Networking on court staff training and delivering training to court staff is a new strategic objective of the Network” (point 61).
The integration of court staff into EJTN training activities was also supported by the findings of the Study on the Training Needs of Court Staff on EU Law in the EU and its annexes, developed by the consortium led by EJTN in collaboration with the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), and published by the European Commission in June 2021.
