On September 10, in Strasbourg, the conference was opened: “Regional dialogue on judicial reform in Eastern Partnership Countries”, where the Chairman of GBA- Zaza Khatiashvili had a speech. He talked about the gaps, obstructing the lawyer and client as well, to carry out his or her professional obligationsproperly. In particular, he claimed: “I thinkthe big problem of a fair trial is that while discussing civil cases in the first instance, the party is represented not by a lawyer, but by a citizen. This prevents and does not provide a qualified protection. As true as it may be the losing party, a lawyer faces difficulties to correct the mistakes, made by the intervention of unqualified, non-lawyer entity. As for the criminal cases, the courts do not justify in the verdict, why they rejected the defense evidence and accepted the prosecution evidence. Also it is notable, that appointment of the judges for the three year trial period causes the intimidation of a judge to issue a legal decision”.

The conference will focus on the experience of judicial reforms’member states, recently developed events of Coe and approaches, success factors and current issues, European standards connected with the judicial reform.

The aim of the EU and Coe joint project: Regional dialogue on judicial reform in the Eastern Partnership Countries” is to start regional dialogue regarding the judicial reforms in Eastern partnership countries, in order to develop horizontal connections, to implement sharing experience and information,to develop the best reforms that promote the beginning of new process in certain countries.

The conference will beended on September 11.