The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HJPC) is currently implementing a project entitled ”Support to the BiH Judiciary” as financed by the European Union’s Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA 2009). Within the framework of the project, a conference and workshop entitled ‘Improving Capacities of Court Bailiffs’ was held on 13 June 2012 in Sarajevo. This was the occasion to present results of the project activities related to improving capacities of court bailiffs of first instance courts throughout BiH.
Renzo Daviddi, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Novković, President of the HJPC, representatives of the EU Delegation, HJPC, court presidents, judges and court bailiffs, attended the conference.
The conference was organised in two parts; the first part included a presentation of the implemented activities and results achieved in the previous period, while the second part was organised as a workshop where the participants exchanged ideas and experiences that can contribute to further improvement of the status and the role of a court bailiff in a judicial system of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In his welcoming remarks, the President of the HJPC, Milorad Novković, thanked for the representatives of the European Union for their support in the implementation of the project activities related to improving the status and the role of court bailiffs, reform of the enforcement procedure and the BiH judiciary as a whole. President Novković expressed his satisfaction with the achieved results and the great attention to the key factor of the successful enforcement procedure, court bailiffs. He also expressed a hope that such activities would continue, as they bring the judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to the standards of modern judicial systems within the European Union.
Renzo Daviddi, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to BiH, said in his welcoming remarks “A significant backlog of court cases is considered a key impediment to judicial efficiency in any transition country, and the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is particularly challenging, with over 2 million cases to be processed. Substantial reductions in this area, therefore, are a must for BiH’s path to European integration’.
With the goal to improve the status and the role of court bailiffs in the judicial system of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the enforcement procedure as a whole, the following results were achieved in the past period with EU financial assistance:
- Published Practicum for Court Bailiffs;
- Implemented trainings for court bailiffs in cooperation with the entities’ centres for education of judges and prosecutors;
- Procured vehicles for 20 courts with the goal to improve technical capacities of court bailiffs;
- Established Working Group for preparing a proposal of the professional exam for court bailiffs.
The following conclusions were adopted at the end of the conference:
- Continue with the training of court bailiffs in a way it has been organised for judges and prosecutors.
- Clearly define competences and responsibilities of court bailiffs, and establish an optimum quota for the work of court bailiffs.
- Continue to strengthen the role of a court bailiff in the field and ensure an adequate protection in the field.
- Regulate the status of court bailiffs by a special law in accordance with the Recommendation Rec (2003) 17 of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to member states on the enforcement procedure.
- Recommendation to the Association of Court Bailiffs in Bosnia and Herzegovina to compose the Ethics Code of Conduct for court bailiffs in line with its competences and authorities.
- Create new functionalities in CMS that will improve work of court bailiffs, then issue a handbook for the work of court bailiffs in CMS and conduct adequate trainings in using these functionalities.
- Provide necessary material and technical preconditions for conducting enforcement actions.
