AEAJ | The Association of European Administrative Judges

AEAJ takes part into OSCE-ODIHR Conference on Rule of Law and Independence of Administrative Justice

2025-11-06T17:08:00+01:00

The development of administrative justice in Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) is a key factor of the sustainable development of the Rule of law. in this region, marked by its distinct legal post-Soviet heritage.

Three of these countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine) have created administrative courts and administrative courts of appeals in the 21st century, whereas two others (Georgia and Moldova) foster specialisation of administrative judges through dedicated administrative chambers or panels within each tier of general courts.

In order to adress this crucial issue, ODIHR organised a Conference on Rule of Law and Independence of Administrative Justice on 29-30 October 2025 in Warsaw.

Bringing together judges, legal experts, and civil society representatives from across the OSCE region, the Conference provided a platform to discuss current challenges and good practices in safeguarding judicial independence and strengthening the rule of law, with a particular focus on the role of administrative justice in protecting fundamental rights.

A substantial part of the seminar was dedicated to practiacal exchanges on administrative justice experience in the OSCE region.

Invited at the conference as a speaker, AEAJ president Sylvain Mérenne ensured the representation of European administrative judges as peers of their Eastern Partnership colleagues.

Pawel Gronski, vice-president of the administrative court of Warsaw and co-chair of the AEAJ Independence and Administrative Justice WG, moderated the panel on the role of administrative justice in ensuring protection of civil and political rights of the citizens as a safeguard against rule of law backsliding.

This conference was organised with the support of the European Union in the perspective of EU enlargement process.

ODIHR LinkedIn post on this event is available here.

AEAJ represented at OSCE Roundtable on Administrative Justice in Tirana

2025-10-06T12:05:00+02:00

Strengthening judicial independence and dialogue between Austria and Albania

On2–3 October 2025, a delegation of the Austrian Association of Administrative Judges conducted a two-day study visit to Tirana, organised in cooperation with the OSCE Presence in Albania. Such a visit concurs with the goals of the Association of European Administrative Judges (AEAJ) – to promote Rule of law, judicial independence, and mutual understanding among administrative judges across Europe.

A highlight of the visit was the roundtable on “Administrative Justice – Comparative Perspectives from Albania and Austria”, hosted by the OSCE Presence in Albania.

The event was opened by Ms Clarisse Pastory, Deputy Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, and H.E. Ambassador Monika Zach, who underlined the importance of sustained cooperation between the Albanian and Austrian judiciaries as part of a shared commitment to European values and judicial independence.

Ms Eva Wendler, representing AEAJ as vice-president of the Association, contributed to the discussions by highlighting the importance of judicial dialogue in safeguarding independence and efficiency. High representatives of the Albanian judiciary and Austria’s Judicial Attaché for the Western Balkans also took part in the exchange.

The Austrian Association of Administrative Judges and AEAJ express their sincere gratitude to the OSCE Presence in Albania for the excellent organisation and hospitality, and to all Albanian partners for their open and constructive dialogue.

Further information about the event is available on the OSCE website:

👉 www.osce.org/presence-in-albania/598465

Seminar of the WG Planning and Environment in Würzburg

2025-09-22T19:34:00+02:00

AEAJ WG Planning and Environment seminar

Würzburg, Germany | 18–19 September 2025

The AEAJ Working Group on Environmental Law held its annual seminar on 18–19 September 2025 in Würzburg, generously hosted by the Administrative Court of Würzburg. The seminar, titled “No Plan is Perfect: Urban and Environmental Planning under Judicial Review” brought together 26 participants from Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United States of America.

Key topics included recent developments in EU Environmental law and CJEU case-law, national perspectives on planning disputes, trends and impacts of climate litigation, and broader discussions on the role of Environmental law in protecting nature.

The programme combined legal discussions with social activities, including a group dinner, a visit to Würzburg historic center and a boat trip to Veitshöchheim and its Rococo Garden.

Seminar of the WG Asylum and Immigration in Brussels

2025-09-17T18:29:00+02:00

The Working Group "Asylum and Immigration" held its annual seminar on 18 and 19 September 2025 in Brussels, Belgium. The event was kindly hosted by the Belgian Conseil du contentieux des étrangers / Raad voor Vreemdelingenbetwistingen.

The RVV-CCE is a federal administrative court specialised into asylum and immigration cases.

The seminar included presentations and high-level discussions on:

- the "safe third country" concept;

- the recent jurisprudence of the ECtHR and the CJEU;

- Syria's transition and cessation of international protection;

- nationality law under European influence.

Please find the agenda here:

//aeaj.org/wfcms//uploads/AEAJ_Agenda_Brussels_18-19_09_2025.pdf

Highlights of the first day included exchanges with Judge of the ECtHR Gilberto Felici and Advocate General Laila Medina on recent jurisprudence of the two European Courts on matters related to asylum and migration. Our colleagues Margot Stoové (Netherlands) and Holger Böhmann (Germany) shared their national expertise as discussants.

Friday morning, AEAJ participants had an interactive lively and open exchange with Mr. Michael Shotter, director for Migration and Asylum at the EU Commission (DG Home). The discussants were our colleagues Fani Sotiriadou (Greece) and António Mendes Oliveira (Portugal), who emphasized on the specific challenges for their respective countries.

The seminar gathered 47 European participants and 19 Belgian colleagues (judges and attachés).

AEAJ would like to express our sincere gratitude to our Belgian colleagues for their hospitality and looks forward for further cooperation!

Meeting of the AEAJ Advisory Group in Leipzig

2025-09-05T14:18:00+02:00

The AEAJ Advisory Group, gathering a broad range of profiles of AEAJ friends, held its formal meeting in Leipzig on 5. September 2025, on the invitation of Holger Böhmann (former vice president of the AEAJ, 2012-2023).

The meeting took place in the premises of the German Federal administrative court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht).

The Advisory Group appointed as new members:

· Mr Alen Rajko, judge at the administrative court of Rijeka, Croatia;

· Mr Jānis Neimani, judge at the Constitutional court of the Republic of Latvia;

· Ms Dora Virag Dudas, judge at the High Court of Budapest, Hungary,

· Mr Michal Novotny, judge at the Spreme administrative court of Slovakia.

AEAJ thanks departing AG members Ms Annika Sandstroem and Mr Werner Heermann for their continuous support and implication for so many years.

Moreover, it congratulates AG member Ms Danutė Jočienė for its appointment at the General Court of the EU.

Statement on the independence and working conditions of administrative judges in Greece

2025-06-22T19:29:00+02:00

On 15 June 2025, the Board of the AEAJ adopted the following statement.

The full text of the statement is accessible in PDF format via this link.

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STATEMENT ON THE INDEPENDENCE AND WORKING CONDITIONS OF ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGES IN GREECE

The Association of European Administrative Judges (AEAJ) expresses its concerns on the current developments of proceedings related to case-management targeting administrative judges in Greece.

The Hellenic Association of Administrative Judges informed AEAJ on the article 50 of the Code on the Organization of Courts and the Status of Judicial Officers (Law 4938/2022). Administrative judges are imposed an eight-month deadline after a hearing to issue their decision. In case of repeated unjustified delay in the issuance of their decisions, the General Commissioner of the State for administrative courts is entitled by law to reduce their salary. AEAJ expresses its concerns regarding this provision. It disapproves any mechanism that penalises judicial salaries in case of non-respect of objectives, without a proper assessment of effective work time, even more when such a mechanism is tainted by a lack of transparency or clarity.

Moreover, the articles 53 and 55 of the same Code and the current conditions of its implementation do not provide the possibility to suspend or reassign a case, including in circumstances such as illness, pregnancy or maternity of the judge. A judge who delays issuing decisions while on leave is also subject to the salary reduction provision set out in article 50 of law 4938/2022. AEAJ questions the respect not only of European standards related to judicial independence, but of international and European social and anti-discrimination law as well. Introducing proceedings aiming at reducing the remuneration of colleagues on leave violates their basic social rights. Judges must be able to exercise their right to sick leave, maternity/paternity leave, or other legitimate absences without adverse consequences for their pending caseload.

Such questions are of specific relevance for projects funded by the European Union through a national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP).

Experience proves that judicial reforms have to be associated with support and positive incentives. Providing adequate human and material resources, including IT, is a key for success.

On the contrary, introducing an automated quasi-disciplinary mechanism would only contribute to the deterioration of the situation Greek administrative courts.

AEAJ calls for the Ministry of Justice and other Greek institutions to take advantage of the expertise of the Hellenic Association of Administrative Judges (Ένωση Διοικητικών Δικαστών) in matters related to the administrative judiciary and to develop a constructive dialogue in order to ensure the independence of each individual judge in the exercise of his or her office.

Partner project: Backsliding Democracies - The Role of the Judiciary

2025-06-22T18:56:00+02:00

We are glad to announce the lauch of a series of podcasts within the framework of our fresh partnership on Backsliding democracies!

Backsliding democracies will provide online events with top notch Rule of law experts through a very ambitious project which will develop in time.

AEAJ seminar and General assembly on 16-17 May 2025 in Ljubljana

2025-05-25T17:57:00+02:00

AEAJ held the seminar of its Working Group Independence and Efficiency and its General Assembly in Ljubljana on 16 &17 May 2025. The event was kindly hosted by the Supreme Court of Slovenia.

The Slovenian Association of Judges is a member of AEAJ since 2005. AEAJ congratulates its new president Tomaž Bromše for its recent election.

OSCE - Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights supported the event to facilitate participation of Western Balkans administrative judges.

AEAJ Ljubljana Statement on AI

2025-05-18T18:56:00+02:00

AEAJ adresses challenges raised for courts by Artificial Intelligence (AI) by its open Statement on AI adopted on 16. May 2025 in Ljubljana.

This statement is the result of a year-long process associating the different components of AEAJ, with the helpful collaboration of IT specialised judges. It presents the professional viewpoint of European administrative judges on issues from the present and near future.

After underlining that AI shall never replace human judges, the statement calls for active public innovation by national judicial systems in order to design appropriate AI tools respecting the fundamental judicial framework. Such tools may help to reshape judicial interactions and improve access to courts, strenghtening citizens' trust into the judiciary and the Rule of law in a decisive period.

The statement is an opening. AEAJ intends to continue working on this decisive topic in the future.

To download the PDF version : AEAJ Ljubljana Statement on AI (English version)

AEAJ-EJTN seminar in Prague (Czech Republic), 3-4 April 2025

2025-04-04T18:00:00+02:00

AEAJ and EJTN held their joint seminar on "Conflicts of Norms. Multi-level protection in the Application of Fundamental Rights" in Prague on 3-4 April 2025.

The seminar focussed on fundamental rights and freedoms in Europe, which are protected on several levels: National (constitutional) law, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) as well as European Union law including the Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. From the perspective of national judges, questions often arise as to which law and which fundamental rights are applicable, in how far European law takes precedence and is directly applicable, and how possible conflicts are to be resolved. The seminar addressed these questions by expert lectures and practical case studies. In small groups, 38 administrative, civil and criminal judges from 20 European countries exchanged their knowledge and best practices.

AEAJ would like to thank our Czech hosts from the Judicial Academy of the Czech Republic, in particular Vit Peštuka, as well as EJTN project manager Achim Schelle and Roberto Giovanni Conti from the Scuola superiore della magistratura in Rome.

AEAJ-EJTN seminar in Porto (Portugal), 6-7 March 2025

2025-03-10T10:02:00+01:00

AEAJ and EJTN held their joint seminar on "The Role of the Administrative Judge and Court Staff in the State" in Porto on 6-7 March 2025.

This seminar intends to explore the challenges faced by the administrative judiciary in its daily work, the modern challenges that emerge from the use of aggressive technology, artificial intelligence and the use of social media by judges and court staff but also the role of the judiciary as a pillar of the Rule of Law and the Institution of Justice and Democracy.

The seminar took place at the Palacio de Justicia of Porto. The president of the Tribunal da Relação (Court of Appeals) José Igreja Matos introduced the seminar. Mr Matos is also vice-president of the CCJE and honorary president of the International Association of Judges.

The seminar gathered 42 participants from 16 European countries. It has been opened to court staff for the second consecutive time (11 participants).

Many thanks to our Portuguese hosts, to activity coordinators Evgenia Papadopoulou and Carla Galvão, as well as to EJTN Project manager Eunice Litu.

AEAJ-OSCE-Albanese School of Magistracy Joint Seminar in Tirana (Albania)

2025-03-09T18:51:00+01:00

AEAJ, OSCE (Representation in Albania) and the Albanian School of Magistracy organised a joint seminar on Friday 7. March 2025 in Tirana. The topic of the seminar was dedicated to "Conflict of Norms in the field of Fundamental Rights".

Such an issue, on articulation of the different legal sources of fundamental rights, is familiar to administrative judges around Europe. The topic is close to a longstanding AEAJ-EJTN seminar.

AEAJ vice-president Eva Wendler made the introductive presentation. Administrative judge Enerjeta Shehaj presented the Albanian approach. Former AEAJ Edith Zeller adressed further issues in the afternoon. AEAJ President Sylvain Mérenne also made online opening remarks adressing Albanian colleagues.

19 administrative judges attended the seminar.

Albania created administrative courts and an administrative court of appeals in 2013.

AEAJ and ABA-NCALJ renew their Memorandum of Understanding for a new triennal period

2025-01-16T11:13:00+01:00

On 13 May 2022, the Association of European Administrative Judges (AEAJ) and the US National Conference of Administrative Law Judges (NCALJ) - American Bar Association (ABA) - concluded a Memorandum of Understanding to provide a framework for their friendly transatlantic relations.

The signature of the original Memorandum was preceded by early contacts between former AEAJ president Edith Zeller and hon. Ed Felter, Alex Manuel and Julian Mann, from the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association.

By signing the renewal of this memorandum on 9 January 2025, the two associations commit, once again, to "mutually promote education and understanding about the work of each other's organizations".

In the framework of this memorandum, AEAJ president Sylvain Mérenne attended to the ABA annual conference in Chicago in July 2024 and made a presentation to US participants on European administrative justice systems.

Hon. Mimi Tsankov was elected chair of NCALJ chair the following day in Chicago.

On picture, right: David L. Welch, former chair of NCALJ

AEAJ 2025 Work Programme and President's Wishes

2025-01-13T17:24:00+01:00

AEAJ 2025 Work Programme

AEAJ releases its 2025 Work Programme, which summarises its activities for the coming year.

The seminars of the AEAJ Working Groups will be:

- WG Independence and Efficiency, 15 & 16 May 2025, Ljubljana: Towards the Cyber-Administrative Judge

- WG Taxation, 29 & 30 May 2025, Vilnius: The never ending story of tax fraud

- WG Environmental Law, 18 & 19 September 2025, Würzburg: No plan is perfect - Urban and environmental planning under judicial planning

- WG Asylum and Immigration, 18 & 19 September 2025, Brussels

The two AEAJ-EJTN joint seminars:

- The Role of the Administrative Judge and Court Staff in the State, 6 & 7 March 2025, Porto

- Conflict of Norms - Multi-level protection in the application of Fundamental Rights, 3 & 4 April 2025, Prague

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President's Wishes

Dear colleagues, dear friends,

Will 2025 be the Year of the Cyber?

Last November, the unacceptable comments from tech billionaire Elon Musk against Italian asylum judges highlighted, by contrast, how valuable independent administrative judiciaries are for our European democracies.

AEAJ stopped using X and its account is inactive now. The decision was already made easier by the small proportion of real users on this platform, limiting its interest for our external communication.

At the same moment, we suffered a scam cyberattack via fake emails. I personally contacted the French cybersecurity agency about this issue. It confirmed both that our response was appropriate and that the chances to find the perpetrators are slim.

But in November 2024 as well, we released our new AEAJ website: a contemporary outlook, some new features and a few creative design points!

The new website includes a News section which is progressively fed with information from us and our partners, such as the EJTN Catalogue of Training Activities, which includes our two AEAJ-EJTN seminars, or the release of the ELI-Mount Scopus European Standards of Judicial Independence, to which AEAJ contributed. We are also particularly proud to refer to the recent interview of Mehmet Tank, and we salute our Turkish colleagues who stay courageously committed for the Rule of Law.

Our website, accessible to all European colleagues and beyond, is our first social media.

In the coming weeks, we will go further and start a new project: the creation of a proper mailing list database, for which we chose the provider. All of our contacts – and you first! – will have to create a profile on our page. That will greatly help us to manage mailing at a new scale. More details on this will come later.

Therefore, will tech bring new propellants to administrative justice? Or will we all be sick of tech before it has even started to make our work better? The best thing to do is … to deliberate about it. This is why the topic of the coming seminar of our Working Group Independence and Efficiency – Ljubljana, 16 & 17 May 2025 – will be: “Towards the Cyber Administrative Judge: transforming rhe judicial process at the Digital Age”. We expect you to be many to come in Ljubljana!

Dear colleagues, dear friends, I wish you a pleasant and fulfilling experience for this New Year, both on personal and professional grounds. And I'm eager to see you – as always.

Yours faithfully,

Sylvain Mérenne

President of AEAJ

Lauch of the seminar "Judges Upholding the Rule of Law" in Strasbourg

2024-12-23T09:05:00+01:00

The thematic seminar (course launch) on “Judges Upholding the Rule of Law”, a joint project of the Council of Europe and EJTN, took place on 17th and 18th December 2024, in the premises of the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg.

This online tutored course will last two months and the assigned HELP tutors are AEAJ vice-president Evgenia Papadopoulou and Mr. Gianluca Grasso, from the Italian School of Judiciary.

Former Turkish judge Mehmet Tank is "Breaking an 8-Year Silence"

2024-12-13T15:23:00+01:00

Mehmet Tank is a former tax judge from Turkey with a dedicated career in the judiciary and a steadfast commitment to judicial independence.

He began his career as a tax inspector in 2002 before entering the judiciary in 2005. He served as a tax judge within the administrative justice system. He was involved in YARSAV, the independent Turkish association of judges and prosecutors, especially as officer for international affairs. YARSAV was the AEAJ member for Turkey.

Mehmet faced repeated reassignments - a form of punishment - between 2011 and 2016, and was finally arrested, dismissed and imprisoned until being released on parole in 2021. He is now based in Switzerland, where he lives with his family.

After eight years of silence, Mehmet is finally sharing his story through an interview published on the Swiss media Plattform J, authored by Max Saladin. You can read different parts of the interview here (in German):

Richter im Exil in Bern - Teil 1: "Ich spürte, dass sie mich umbringen wollen."

Richter im Exil in Bern - Teil 2: "Überrascht von der Schweizer Gastfrendschaft."

Further stories and events will be published later by Plattform J.

ELI releases the ELI-Mount Scopus European Standards of Judicial Independence

2024-12-13T10:44:00+01:00

The European Law Institute (ELI) has released the ELI-Mount Scopus European Standards of Judicial Independence, available here.

ELI' Standards establish guidelines to assess and promote judicial independence, rooted in the European values.

The Association of European Administrative Judges (AEAJ) became an observer into ELI's project and contributed with detailed comments, especially on questions related to administrative law and administrative courts, that ELI took carefully into consideration.

AEAJ thanks ELI and the project reporters for their impressive work.

More information on the project may be found here.

A serie of three webinars will be organised by ELI on 15 January, 29 January and 12 February 2025.

EJTN launches its fully digital 2025 Catalogue of Training Activities

2024-12-13T09:50:00+01:00

The European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) has released its 2025 Catalogue of Training Activities.

The Catalogue is accessible either in a PDF version and in an Online interactive version.

EJTN is the network of European judicial training institutions, and has delivered training and seminars to European judges for 25 years.

AEAJ and EJTN will organise jointly two seminars:

- The Role of Administrative Judges and Court Staff in the State in Porto (Portugal) on 6-7 Mars 2025 (application deadline: 10 January 2025)

- Conflict of Norms: multi-level-protection in the application of Fundamental Rights in Prague (Czech Republic) on 3-4 April 2025 (application deadline: 4 April 2025)

AEAJ represents administrative judges at the 25th plenary meeting of the CCJE

2024-12-08T16:30:00+01:00

The Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE), an advisory body of the Council of Europe, met in Strasbourg on 4-6 December 2024 to prepare its Opinion No. 27 (2024) on the disciplinary liability of judges. AEAJ has been an observer at the CCJE for a long time and presented several comments on the draft, supported by the experience of administrative judges in the field of disciplinary law.

AEAJ participates to the annual edition of the European of the Legal Professions

2024-11-14T14:30:00+01:00

On November 8th, 2024, AEAJ president Sylvain Mérenne and vice-president Eva Wendler attended the European Forum of the Legal Professions, organised by the Academy of European Law (ERA). The event took place in Brussels and was broadcasted online to a large audience.

Sylvain Mérenne took part in one of the afternoon's roundtables. He underlined the role of the administrative judge into preserving a stable legal framework for innovation in the private sector, the importance of innovation in the public sector, and the role of the administrative judge as a legal gatekeeper for innovations coming from the public sector, especially through the lense of fundamental rights. He concluded that innovation does not necessarily means improvement, but necessarily implies change, and call for well funded justice systems and highly skilled justice professionals to face these challenges.