Justice and Home Affairs - 2009
Justice and Home Affairs - 2009
The second edition of the “Justice and Home Affairs” training course was organized in 2009 and it was conceived as a consequence of the needs’ assessment analysis run by the European Institute of Romania at the end of 2007.
With its central point being the third pillar of the EU construction, which was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty, the “Justice and Home Affairs” training course addresses themes of interest to any European citizen, and, more particularly, to those specialists with competencies in the legal domain. For instance, here are some of the topics presented during the training programme: the freedom of movement, the Schengen acquis and the institutional structure facilitating the accomplishment of a European space of justice, security and freedom.
Beneficiaries
The second edition of the “Justice and Home Affairs” training course gathered not only representatives of the central and local public administration, but also members of the academia. As expected, given the rather concrete subject of the training programme, the institutions with the highest number of representatives were the Ministry of Administration and Interior and the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police. Also, some of the participants were employed in other public institutions, such as: the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection, Ministry of Public Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Rural Development, Ministry of Communication and Information Society, National Agency of Public Servants, The Authority for State Assets Recovery, The National Council to Combat Discrimination, the Institution of the Prefect-Gorj county. Furthermore, most of the participants are activating in the European Affairs or International Relations Departments/ Services/ Directions of the institutions they are employed in, the vast majority of them holding the legal counselor or European Affairs counselor positions. The total number of participants to the second edition of the programme was 34.
Objectives
The “Justice and Home Affairs” training course was organized because of the need to clarify and bring structure to the essential elements needed for understanding the transformation of the European Union in a common security, freedom and justice space.
The third pillar of the European construction contains regulations and standards applicable in the following fields: asylum, external borders, visas, emigration, European citizenship, organized crime, fraud and corruption, drugs, terrorism, police cooperation, customs cooperation, judicial cooperation in civil and criminal actions, protection of personal data, human rights and the Schengen convention.
The training programme organized by the EIR offered course participants the bench-marks and the necessary instruments for understanding the interference between the national and the European spheres when insuring the safety of citizens in a context of freedom and justice.
Timetable
As it has previously been mentioned, the “Justice and Home Affairs” training programme was organized for the second time in 2009. The second edition of the “Justice and Home Affairs” training course took place between the 1st and the 2nd of June 2009. With a total number of 16 working hours, the programme’s sessions ended with a testing period. Thus, the participation certificates were awarded based on the results of the tests which evaluated the knowledge gained by the participants during the various sessions of the “Justice and Home Affairs” course.
Details about the content of the programme
The “Justice and Home Affairs” training course was organized in a series of modules which were further centered around the following themes:
- the objective of the common justice, security and freedom space- the history of the common justice, security and freedom space
- the institutions and the main regulations involved in the formulation and the implementation of the policy creating a common justice, security and freedom space
- the harmonization of Romanian legislation with the JHA acquis
- the Schengen acquis
- the right to freedom of movement
All sessions of the course were presented by professor Simina - Elena Tănăsescu, PhD in Law, famed Romanian expert in constitutional law, and a trainer with a vast experience in Law and in European Affairs. Currently, Prof.dr. Simina-Elena Tănăsescu holds the Vice-dean position within the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest. Given her wide expertise, Prof.dr. Simina-Elena Tănăsescu has lectured courses for Romanian and foreign universities, but also for renowned training and research institutes. Furthermore, professor Simina - Elena Tănăsescu is also the author of various books and studies on constitutional and parliamentary law. While her experience includes both acting as judge and as expert in Phare projects, she has also collaborated with the Delegation of the European Commission in Bucharest in the monitoring of EU financed programmes in the fields of public administration and justice.
From the standpoint of training methods lecture and discussions were combined, the study of case-law being also used during the exercises.
Participants’ feed-back
The “Justice and Home Affairs” training course was assessed by the participants at the end of the training sessions. In order to evaluate the “Justice and Home Affairs” training programme, the participants were asked to fill in an anonymous opinion poll which comprised of both closed and open questions. While through the former type of questions, the participants were asked to grade the general level of the course, through the latter they were asked to give examples of the most useful and, respectively, of the most redundant knowledge gained during the “Justice and Home Affairs” programme. The opinion poll also included a request for additional comments and suggestions.
The general assessment of the training course revealed a high level of satisfaction, 65% of the course participants appreciating the “Justice and Home Affairs” programme to be excellent, and 35% of them as good.
From all the themes addressed by the “Justice and Home Affairs” training course, the right to freedom of movement, the enforcement of the Community law and of the competencies belonging to the European Court of Justice, but also the legal instruments specific to the 3rd Pillar and the JHA domains which “migrated” from the 3rd to the 1st Pillar, were identified as the most useful topics.
Here is a selection of the opinions expressed of participants:
-the trainer’s performance reached the highest standards
- the course materials are very well structured and they include fundamental information
- the organizers proved maximum availability in answering our demands and concerns
-the case-law debates were relevant for highlighting the difficulties of the legal harmonization process within the EU. Nevertheless, given the rather limited number of hours ascribed to the training course, it would had been impossible to completely analyze the JHA mechanisms. This is why I plead for the future development of training courses focused exclusively on particular areas of JAI. i.e.: the Schengen acquis, the international cooperation of the police forces. Thank you!
Organizers
The “Justice and Home Affairs” training course was organized by the EIR at its headquarters in Bucharest, 7-9 Regina Elisabeta Bldv., in the conference hall.
The project coordinator was Laurenţia Mariana Mereuţă, laurentia.mereuta@ier.ro
