Speech, dr. Julia Laffranque, Ljubljana, 18.11.2009

Dear Minister of Justice of Slovenia,
Dear Director General for Human Rights and Legal Affairs,
Dear President of the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors,
Dear colleagues,
Dear Minister, dear Ales Zalar, thank you very much for your invitation and warm welcome to Ljubljana. I recall that while still being a member of the CCJE you once told me that Slovenians and Estonians are related and I was very amused about this information, as all children in Estonia always study at school that Estonians belong together with the Finns and the Hungarians to the finno-ugric family of origin. But you said that many times people confuse the Balkans with the Baltic States and vice versa (which is the truth!) and therefore we should start to consider ourselves relatives! For sure we share many things in common, e.g. almost the same size of population and perhaps also the similar amount of population of bears, animals that have become quite unique in the rest of the Europe!
But let me enlighten you about some more animals. When I told a non-lawyer friend of mine that I am leaving for about a week to Ljubljana to talk about the role of judges and prosecutors in a democratic society, he said to me that for him it seems that the relationship between prosecutors and judges is like the one between cats and dogs. I was surprised about this slightly banal comparison, because, like I said in my speech at the Conference in Bordeaux, I rather like to measure up the judges and prosecutors with my one year old non-identical twin sons: so similar and yet different at the same time. But perhaps indeed, also the parallel to cats and dogs is adequate: we are diverse, yet we need each other and we both are irreplaceable for the proper functioning of democratic society and the rule of law, similarly as one could not imagine a perfect farm without a cat and a dog.
Article 3 of the draft of the Bordeaux declaration on judges and prosecutors we are about to discuss and adopt, states as follows: „The proper performance of the distinct but complementary roles of judges and public prosecutors as well as defence lawyers is necessary guarantee for the fair, impartial and effective administration of justice. Judges and public prosecutors must both enjoy independence in respect of their functions and also be independent from each other”.
My dear friends, the 12th opinion of the CCJE is unique not only because it has been drafted together with the public prosecutors, but also for the reason that it marks a new milestone in the presentation of the opinions: the opinion consists of a declaration and of an explanatory note. The declaration, as said above, is called a Bordeaux declaration on “Judges and prosecutors in a democratic society,” because it was drafted in Bordeaux during the 4th Conference of European judges and in the working group of the CCJE jointly with the working group of the CCPE.
Personally I am very pleased with this new form because I think that this declaration will have a significant and far reaching meaning. At the same time it will be more compact, short and concrete than opinions which have been criticized as becoming year by year too long and too comprehensive to read. The declaration will set standards for the Member States, it will be easy to use it and refer to it, but at the same time the explanatory note will elaborate the topic in a more in depth manner.
The declaration and the explanatory note stress the following points: status of judges and public prosecutors, guarantees for their internal and external independence, the rule of law as a condition of their independence; ethics, deontology and training of judges and public prosecutors; roles and functions of judges and public prosecutors and rights of defence at all level of procedure: in the pre-criminal procedure, in the course of prosecution and court hearing, as well as outside the criminal law field and in supreme courts; judges, public prosecutors and the media and last but not least, judges, prosecutors and international co-operation.
Thus it is important that the rights of the defence and of the victims are respected at all level of proceedings, that the judges and prosecutors enjoy independence; that the independence of the judges and the prosecutors both from the executive and legislature as well as from each other not only is but also appears to be; that this Opinion (declaration and explanatory note) needs to be seen in the context of the relations of judges with the professional persons dealing with justice involved in the various stages of judicial proceedings: with the prosecution service, but also with others professional persons dealing with justice (lawyers, judicial experts, court clerks, bailiffs) and with the police and similar bodies, as stated in the global action plan for judges in Europe.
Dear members of the CCJE and of the CCPE, may I remind you that we need to be especially effective at this joint plenary in order to find consensus and to present our common view to the public. We will not have enough time to open extensive discussions concerning every detail of the explanatory note during the plenary and shall concentrate ourselves in the first place on the declaration. The explanatory note follows the structure of the declaration and does not alter the substance of the declaration. The repetition within the explanatory note has been avoided; all the previous opinions, recommendations and other relevant documents of the Council of Europe are mentioned in the foot-notes of the explanatory note. There are no explanations as to the situation in different countries; the comprehensive description of current situations in Member States is not included in the explanatory note.
Ladies and gentlemen, I will let you to decide which part you would like to play: cats or dogs, but I hope that we will not leave Ljubljana with scars of fighting but rather with enriching experience and new ideas.
Mesdames, messieurs,
La principale mission de l’Etat de droit démocratique est de veiller au respect des droits et libertés fondamentaux et à l’égalité de tous devant la loi. En même temps, il est important de garantir la sécurité au sein de la société et de sanctionner le plus équitablement possible les infractions à la loi. Dans ce contexte, les juges et les procureurs ont un rôle lourd de responsabilité à jouer.
L’indépendance fonctionnelle des procureurs est indispensable et constitue une condition sine qua non à l’indépendance des juges. C’est en partant précisément de ce principe que le texte commun de l’avis du CCJE et du CCPE a été conçu : il est apparu inutile de reproduire les principes bien connus et figurant déjà dans divers documents se rapportant à l’indépendance des juges et de la justice. On s’est plutôt posé la question de savoir comment garantir que les juges et les procureurs remplissent leurs missions en toute équité et conformément à l’Etat de droit et que la justice soit centrée sur le respect des droits de l’homme des parties au procès. Il est également important d’examiner quelles sont les conditions qui doivent être garanties afin de parvenir à ces objectifs.
Indépendamment du modèle des relations entre les juges et les procureurs, à propos duquel il est difficile et probablement inopportun de se mettre d’accord sur l’édiction de règles englobant toute l’Europe, il convient d’apporter notre contribution à la réalisation de l’objectif commun des juges et des procureurs.
Je remercie tous les membres de group de travail du CCJE et du CCPE, les membres du bureau du CCJE et du CCPE, M. le président du CCPE, ainsi que les secrétariats de ces deux comité pour leur excellent travail, je remercie tous les membres du CCJE et du CCPE de votre commentaires si constructives et nécessaire.
Je remercie également les autorités slovène pour formidable organisation de cette réunion et pour donne la possibilité de visite votre merveilleux pays.
Je vous remercie de votre attention !