Semi-final of the EJTN THEMIS competition 2013 was held on 13-15 th May, 2013 at the National Courts Administration of the Republic of Lithuania. The semi-final was dedicated to the topic „International Judicial Cooperation in Civil Matters“.  

The Polish and Portuguese representatives won the semi-final and shall participate in the Grand Final, which will be held at the National Institute of Magistracy in Romania between October 21 and 25, 2013.

The team of Lithuania was recognized as the author of the best written paper.  Lithuania was represented by the judges of the Kaunas district court: Marius Bartninkas, Aušra Barškietytė, Asta Žeromskytė-Stanienė with the leader of the team judge of the Kaunas district court Aurelijus Rauckis.  During the competition they had to present a written paper of 20 pages on the topic of Insolvency in the sphere of International Judicial Cooperation in Civil Matters. 

 The THEMIS competition is addressed to trainees from all institutions and schools responsible for the training of the European magistracy. It is organized by EJTN from 2006 in order to promote the professional cooperation, debates, exchange knowledge and points of view on different aspects of European Law. It is substantially funded by the European Union and is offered in collaboration with the Council of Europe. THEMIS consists of 4 semi-finals and the Grand Final. The topics of 2013 years semi-final were:  International Cooperation in Criminal Matters, International Cooperation in Civil Matters, Interpretation and Application of articles 5 and 6 of the ECHR, Magistrate‘s Ethics and Deontology.

Mr. Vytas Milius, the member of the Judicial Council and the chairman of the Court of Appeal ant Mr. Artūras Drigotas the secretary of the Judicial Council and the judge of the Supreme Administrative Court shall participate at the meeting of the working group "The Status of Judges" of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) on 4–5th March, 2010 in Roma (Italy).

During the meeting the topicality of the guaranties of internal and external autonomy of magistrates, the immunity and social welfare also freedom of association of judges shall be presented in detail. States different experiences and news about the economic conditions for members of the judiciary, the financial autonomy and sufficient resources shall be shared, themes related to the disciplinary, suspension and removal shall also be analized.

ENCJ is an organisation uniting the institutions of the EU member states independent from the executive and legislative authorities that are responsible for the support provided to courts for the implementation of independent justice.

In 2009 at the General assembly of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary confirmed the following working groups for 2009 – 2010: "Mutual Confidence", "Judicial Ethics", "Quality and Access to Justice", "Public Confidence" and "Status of Judges" and two expert groups: "E-Justice", "Criminal Law in the EU".

The member of the Judicial Council, Judge of the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Lithuania, Vigintas Visinskis and the member of the Judicial Council, the chairwoman of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court, Zita Smirnoviene shall participate at the meeting of the working group “Quality and Access to Justice” of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) on 25–26 February, 2010 in Roma (Italy).

This meeting of working group “Quality and Access to Justice” shall be the last, therefore the final project of the report and the register shall be arranged, its methodology and the presentation of results shall also be revised and improved. The final report, the register and proposals shall be presented at this year General Assembly in London. The other issues related to the activities of ENCJ working group “Quality and Access to Justice” shall be decided and the future work of this working group shall be discussed as well.

ENCJ is an organisation uniting the institutions of the EU member states independent from the executive and legislative authorities that are responsible for the support provided to courts for the implementation of independent justice. The General assembly of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary confirmed the following working groups for 2009 – 2010: “Mutual Confidence”, “Judicial Ethics”, “Quality and Access to Justice”, “Public Confidence” and “Status of Judges” and two expert groups.

The specialist of the Division of International Relations of the National Courts Administration, Vytautas Dvareckas participated at the meeting of the working group “Public Confidence” of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) on 15 th February, 2010 in Warsaw (Poland).

During the meeting public confidence to the judiciary and increasing of it were discussed, experiences in ensuring public confidence internationally were analyzed, all proposals as well as other suggestions concerning the content of questionnaire were also disputed in order to compose the Eurobarometer survey about the public confidence. Other issues related to the activities of the working group were decided.

ENCJ is an organisation uniting the institutions of the EU member states independent from the executive and legislative authorities that are responsible for the support provided to courts for the implementation of independent justice.

The Senior Specialist of the Division of Informatics and Statistics of the National Courts Administration, Donatas Kiauzaris shall participate at the meeting of the expert group "E-Justice" of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) on 18 January, 2010 in Madrid (Spain).

During the meeting the representatives' competence needed to provide information for the European e-Justice portal shall be discussed. The numbering unification of the European countries case law, creation of Thesaurus and metadata strategy and the other issues related to the European case law database transfer shall be considered as well.

ENCJ is an organisation uniting the institutions of the EU member states independent from the executive and legislative authorities that are responsible for the support provided to courts for the implementation of independent justice. The General assembly of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary confirmed the following working groups for 2009 – 2010: "Mutual Confidence", "Judicial Ethics", "Quality and Access to Justice", "Public Confidence" and "Status of Judges" and two expert groups: "E-Justice", "Criminal Law in the EU".