The High Judicial Council’s Working Group held its second working meeting to continue with the work on amending provisions on reacting to cases of undue influence in their Rules of Procedures. The basis for the discussion on the subject matter was the document “Preventing undue influence on individual judges and the judiciary as a whole - shortcomings and recommendations for improvements”, produced last year through the expertise provided by the Council of Europe consultants.

Members of the Working Group succeeded in resolving the outstanding points about the working text from the previous meeting, in line with the input from the Council of Europe and experiences of other European states. It was decided that the new Rules of Procedure should equally address the undue and unlawful pressures coming from the executive and the legislative branches of government, as well as pressures originating from the media, from lawyers and from the business community.

The meeting was held under the action “Strengthening independence and accountability of the judiciary” which is part of the “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey II”, a co-operation initiative of the European Union and the Council of Europe, which aims at assisting beneficiaries in the Western Balkans region and Turkey to comply with the Council of Europe standards and European Union acquis in the framework of the enlargement process.