Press Release
On Monday, April 18, 2016 the President of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic (“Supreme Court”), Ms. Daniela Švecová, met the President of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary, Lord Geoffrey Vos. Mr. Peter Melicher, the President of the Council of Judges of the Supreme Court was present at the meeting as well.
A large number of cases brought before the Slovak courts, including the backlogs; appointment of judges and perception of courts´ corruption by the general public were the main topics at the meeting.
Lord Vos suggested to change the approach when considering the admissibility of the exceptional legal remedies at the Supreme Court by an efficient system of the permission to submit an appeal on points of law. In relation thereto, the President of the Supreme Court emphasized that the injurious situation is caused by an enormously high number of new cases. For illustrative purposes, within one week last year almost 2000 new cases were brought before the Supreme Court and the panels of the Supreme Court had huge problems to tackle such an extensive agenda. In this connection, the changes in legislation would be very helpful for the Supreme Court. Ms. Daniela Švecová has therefore mentioned a particularly beneficial cooperation with the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic in relation to the solution of the substantive issues.
The participants at the meeting have also agreed on the necessity to change the way of the appointment of judges. Moreover, Lord Vos expressed his opinion that the creation and coordination of the disciplinary panels should be performed by the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic. It is because this body was established for the judiciary as a whole and the management of the disciplinary panels shall belong to its competences. Obviously, the specific cases of the disciplinary misconduct shall be decided on by the judges themselves.
At the end of the meeting Lord Geoffrey Vos expressed his hopes that the greatest problems the Slovak judiciary is forced to face shall be resolved in due course.
Communication Department