Presentation of the tentative programme of the Finnish-Swedish presidency 2023-2025

Mr President, dear Colleagues,

Finland has been elected to hold the ACA-Europe Presidency in 2023-2025. However, my Swedish colleague and friend, President of the Supreme Administrative Court, Ms. Helena Jäderblom and I have agreed that the Finnish presidency will be a joint effort in close cooperation with Sweden.

Regarding the outline of the programme of the presidency, we have had our starting point in the mission of ACA-Europe. We have also studied the programmes of past conferences and have in this regard had the opportunity to scrutinize the programmes of the German presidency and the present Italian presidency. As we all know, ACA-Europe is an international association composed of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the supreme administrative courts of the EU Member States. These supreme jurisdictions play an essential role in the unification and harmonization of EU law. Hence, the primary activities pertain to the analysis and awareness related to the implementation of EU law falling within the jurisdiction of the highest administrative tribunals.

The extremely successful three-year German presidency (in 2019-2021), prolonged by the COVID-19 pandemic, focused on comparative administrative law, especially the law of administrative procedure (ReNEUAL). Another key topic has been working modes and working conditions of the supreme administrative jurisdictions, including access to these courts and filtering mechanisms. Legal documentation has been on the agenda, too.

The outgoing Italian presidency (2021-2023) could be accomplished perfectly, with fantastic face-to-face events in Florence, Rome, and here in Naples. With regard to venues and cultural programme, we shall not be able to compete with our Italian hosts and friends. Unfortunately, during the Italian presidency we have also faced a terrible loss. President Franco Frattini, who was appointed President of the Council of State after Filippo Patroni Griffi had been nominated to Constitutional Court, tragically passed away last Christmas. We lost a great person, statesman, justice, and friend. It has been a heavy burden to President Luigi Maruotti to guide both Consiglio di Stato and ACA-Europe during this spring. With help of your great staff, you have succeeded enormously well, and we wish to congratulate you and your team warmly. We all pay tribute to the Italian Council of State for these memorable two years!

The Italian presidency has concentrated on creating a common judicial culture. The programme has had its focus on horizontal dialogue between the national supreme administrative courts under the title “The role of judges in the process of European integration: horizontal dialogues among the supreme administrative national courts”.

Recalling this background, the Finnish programme will, for a change, focus on the vertical dialogue between the supreme administrative courts and the European Courts, not only the CJEU but also the European Court of Human Rights. The emphasis will rather be on the procedural than the substantive dimension of this relationship.

It would include, among other things, analyzing the decisions of the national courts with regard to the case law of the CJEU and the ECtHR. The focus would be on the procedure in the national courts linked to the preliminary rulings of the CJEU: what does the procedure look like in the supreme administrative courts when they consider requesting a preliminary ruling from the Luxembourg Court, how do national courts proceed after having received the judgment of the CJEU, to what extent do national courts call into question or distinguish the judgments of the CJEU, and how do they implement these rulings in their decisions, in which situations do the national courts consider the issue as acte clair or acte éclairé, etc. Somewhat similar considerations could, mutatis mutandis, be attached to the case law of the ECtHR, recalling also the relatively new opportunity to ask for an advisory opinion, based on Protocol No. 16 to the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

In connection with the analysis of the relationships between national courts and supranational law, we might also give some attention to the national courts´ relationship to the national constitutions. How does the Constitution affect the judgments of the national supreme jurisdictions? Is there some similarity in the interpretation of the Constitution to e.g. the interpretation of EU Directives (can or must the provision in a national act of Parliament be set aside when it collides with the Constitution, shall national law be interpreted in the light of the Constitution, etc.). We might also compare the effects of national constitutions to those of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Of course, the competence of the supreme administrative courts may depend on the existence of a constitutional court.

Under the umbrella of the programme, minor practical procedural issues could also be tackled. As an example, one topic to be mentioned is the cooperation between domestic administrative courts, i.e. cooperation between European administrative courts in cases where the need arises to hear e.g. parties to the proceedings who are located in a member state other than the one where proceedings are conducted.

Having had fruitful conversations not only between the Supreme Administrative Courts of Finland and Sweden, but also our partners from Croatia, France, and the Netherlands, we are pleased to introduce a tentative outline on the forthcoming seminars during the next presidency.

There will be six face-to-face seminars, as follows:

1. Conference 9.-10.10.2023 in Sweden, Stockholm, on Preliminary rulings, from CILFIT to Consorzio (C-561/19), with a focus on topics such as the obligation to refer vs. “margin of appreciation”, lower courts’ role, national follow-up of CJEU judgments, quality, and unambiguity of CJEU judgments, and development of the preliminary ruling system in cooperation with the CJEU
2. ‍Seminar 19.2.2024 in Croatia, Zagreb, on Mechanisms of counteracting conflicting rulings from different domestic supreme courts, constitutional courts, or special courts, and from the CJEU and ECtHR
3. Conference, Board meeting and General Assembly 26.-28.5.2024 in Finland, Lapland, Saariselkä, on constitutional issues: fundamental rights, constitutionality of legislation, supremacy of EU law, rule of law, guarantees for courts’ independence, etc.
4. Seminar 29.11.2024, in France, Versailles, on Justices of supreme administrative jurisdictions and Ethics (deontology),
5. Seminar 10.-11.3.2025 in the Netherlands, the Hague, on pseudonymization of court judgments, and finally,
6. Conference, Board meeting and General Assembly 26.-28.5.2025 in Finland, Helsinki, on the Dialogue with the ECtHR, Protocol 16, judgments of the ECtHR: their impacts and acceptability nationally.

‍We are very proud of having been entrusted with the Presidency of ACA-Europe. Together with our partners, we shall make every effort to provide you, our dear colleagues, with an unforgettable two-year-term with a view to enhancing the cooperation between our national supreme administrative courts and the European Courts. Together we shall build a strong European rule of law.