It was agreed That Mr. David Scott, Chairman, 1995 Commission on Judges' Salaries and Benefits, be invited to appear before the committee.

2 - Rejection of the proposal to abolish the CST because of lack of legal basis in the Treaty. Instead, judges already appointed should immediately be sworn in and those missing should be appointed; a committee of experts should also be created to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of creating a new court specialising in trademarks, patents and intellectual property.

12. Welcomes the adoption of the Strategy and the Action Plan on the reform of the judiciary 2013-2018, built around the key principles of independence, impartiality, competence, quality of the judiciary and freedom from political interference; urges the authorities to intensify this reform in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission, especially with regard to the role of the parliament in judicial appointments and the independence of the prosecution, and with a view to the screening process of Chapter 23, which commenced on 25 September 2013; stresses the importance of strengthening the independence of High Judicial and ...[+++]State Prosecutorial Councils and reducing the backlog of cases, as a necessary condition for the successful sequencing of the entire reform process; calls on the authorities to provide all the necessary resources for the Judicial Academy, which should be instrumental in guaranteeing merit-based recruitments; emphasises the need for continuous training of judges and prosecutors to deal with complex financial cases and economic crimes; urges the authorities responsible to ensure a transparent and merit-based process of appointment of judges and prosecutors as well as a solid track-record of disciplinary proceedings against the judicial personnel; insists further on the need to ensure timely justice together with the unification of jurisprudence, the publication of, and easy access to, all judicial decisions immediately after adoption and the random allocation of cases in all courts; is concerned about the legal uncertainty arising from the number of judges carrying out their duties in acting capacity; reiterates the fact that a strong and independent judiciary is key to Serbia’s capacity to meet EU membership criteria;

15. Notes that Serbia is developing a new strategy for judicial reform, and supports the efforts being made to devise a new court system in order to improve the efficiency and independence of the whole judicial system; welcomes the government’s commitment to tackling shortcomings in the reform of the judiciary, particularly by ensuring that the legal framework leaves no room for undue political influence and addressing the issues of parliament’s power to appoint judges and prosecutors and the direct political participation of officia ...[+++]ls in the work of the High Judicial and State Prosecutorial Councils; underlines the importance of adopting clear and transparent evaluation criteria for appointed judges and prosecutors that will ensure their independence and professionalism; furthermore stresses the need to implement measures, in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission, to address the growing backlog of cases; notes that the Justice Ministry still has responsibility for capital expenditure and that this could further limit the independence of the judiciary; calls on the government to focus on the quality of reform rather than its speed, using the available technical expertise from abroad; stresses also the need for initial and continued professional training of judges and prosecutors, following the extensive changes to the law;

The European Data-protection Supervisor is treated in the same way as a judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities as regards the determination of remuneration, allowances, retirement pension and any other benefit in lieu of remuneration.

I think that the Greek taxpayer is entitled to know what difficulties the Commission has encountered with respect to Olympic Airways and what problems it has encountered, given that these problems have, at times, made it extremely hesitant with respect to the demands of the Greek authorities and, if I have understood your reply correctly, continue even now to make the Commission hesitant on the matter of the third instalment of aid for Olympic Airways.