Trenčan discusses the vision and needs of the highest administrative courts in Europe with members of ACA-Europe in Italy

At the beginning of the meeting, the President of the Association of Supreme Administrative Courts, Filippo Patroni Griffi, presented the results of the questionnaire completed by its members. On the basis of this questionnaire, the ACA-Europe representatives then drew up a report which, among other things, aimed to draw up general principles that could guide the future work of administrative courts.

The three-day official programme at the European University Institute in Fiesole included a number of lectures. Particular attention was paid to the methods and procedures by which the highest administrative courts ensure coherent interpretation of the law. Topics also included the impact of the decision-making and advisory activity of the Supreme Administrative Courts on the development of the practice of public administration application, as well as the question of the enforcement of the courts’ decision.

“The Association is a space for horizontal dialogue between the member countries of the European Union in the areas of competence of the Councils of State and the Supreme Administrative Courts. The recent meeting of the representatives of these important institutions has also contributed to mutual understanding and harmonisation of the approach of the individual states to the tasks of the highest administrative justice bodies in the field of interpretation of law and improvement of the quality or efficiency of public administration, ” said Marián Trenčan, a Judge of the Supreme Administrative Court.

At the end of the meeting, the President of the Association called for highlighting the role and responsibility of the Supreme Administrative Courts within the European Community countries. He therefore stressed the need for them to be increasingly interconnected, as a result of which they could contribute to the creation of an ever closer union, which, he said, was already an objective of the Treaties of Rome.

The mission of ACA-Europe is to promote the efficient functioning of administrative justice in the EU, to build mutual trust among the EU’s highest administrative courts and, last but not least, to exchange knowledge in the field of European administrative courts.