On January 20-24, 2025, decision-makers from judicial training institutions and lawyers' associations from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine made a study visit to the Academy of European Law (ERA) in Trier, Germany. The National Institute of Justice was represented by Ecaterina Popa, ad Interim Director, and Olga Marandici, advisor to the NIJ Director.
The purpose of the visit was to become acquainted with the activity and mission of ERA and to develop a dialogue on the training needs of legal professionals. At the same time, in the context of the accession process to the European Union, the possibility of creating a common judicial training strategy, complementary to existing initiatives at national level, was also discussed.
The program included plenary sessions, workshops and interviews tailored to the specificities of each participating country and the legal professions. Discussions focused on essential legal topics: the relationship between EU and national law, human rights law and the rule of law, civil, criminal, competition, environmental law, etc. In this context, the ERA management has expressed its openness to offer online training opportunities to NIJ beneficiaries starting from the first quarter of this year.
During this visit there were also exchanges of experience with representatives of the European Commission, in particular with experts from the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST) and the Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR).
The participants also had the opportunity to visit the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg, where they attended a hearing and had discussions with the magistrates of the court, in particular with Octavia Spineanu-Matei, judge at the CJEU, former Director of the National Institute of Magistracy of Romania.
The study visit of NIJ representatives was organized by the Academy of European Law.
