Training of justice professionals (judges, prosecutors, court staff, bailiffs, lawyers and notaries) is essential to ensure that European standards and legislation are correctly applied. Through the Horizontal Facility, the European Union and Council of Europe seek to support the up-skilling of legal professionals and tackle the persistent challenges affecting rule of law and independence of judiciary.

Building on developments achieved in previous phase of the programme and in line with the Judicial Training Center (JTC) Development Strategy 2019 - 2022, a comprehensive functional analysis of JTC has been prepared in 2020, to further strengthen the structure and functioning of JTC, and enhance its ability to address emerging challenges and keep up with the development of international standards.

The Analysis has resulted in a number of recommendations for improving the functioning of the Centre in various aspects, including with regards to organisational issues, human resource management, use of IT technologies, strategic planning and training and education methods, in line with the Judiciary Reform Strategy 2019 – 2022 and the Action Plan for Negotiating Chapter 23: Judiciary and Fundamental Rights.

Key findings and recommendations of the Analysis have been presented and discussed at the workshop held on 16 February. The representatives of the European Commission/EU Delegation to Montenegro, the action team and members of the JTC managing and programming bodies have also discussed follow-up activities to be implemented in response to the Functional Analysis.

The workshop was organised under the action “Accountability and professionalism of the judicial system in Montenegro” which is part of the European Union and Council of Europe joint programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.