Mr. Yaşar Şimşek, the CJP member, and Mrs. Burcu Sinoplu, the Rapoorteur Judge, participated in the Conference of Judicial Integrity and Corruption and the 18th Plenary meeting of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE), arranged in Strassbourg on 7-11 November 2017.

The conference started with the speech given by mr. Thorbjorn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The opening speech was followed by the presentations made by Mr. Nils Engstad, the chairman of the CCJE, Mr. Marin Mrcela, the chairman of Greco, Mr. Jose Igreja Matos, the Chairman of the EAJ, Mr. Duro Sessa, the deputy Chairman of the CCJE, and Mr. Alain Lacarabats, Mr. Paul Maffei, Mrs. Nina Betetto, Mrs. Aneta Arnaudovska and Mr. George Birmingham, the CCJE members, on fighting judicial corruption, the main threats to the judicial integrity in European states, ways of preventing corruption and the role of legislative and executive powers, the responsibility of the Judiciary in this field, and the consequences of violating the rule of integrity. The presentations were followed with a question, answer and discussion session, during which some allegations regarding Türkiye were responded.

As regards the 18th Plenary meeting of the CCJE, the draft of the Opinion No. 20 on the “Role of Courts With Respect to the Uniform Application of the law” was elaborated, and the draft was accepted. In addition, the content of the report prepared by the CCJE Bureau on the Independence and the Impartiality of the Judiciary was discussed, our oral responces to the statements regarding Türkiye were presented, and the written responces were decided to be added to the report and sent to the Committee of Ministers. It was adopted that a statement be issued regarding the most recent developments in Poland, and the chairman and the deputies chairman of the CCJE for the incoming term were elected.