On 17 May 2023, the final conference of the project “Enhancement and modernisation of judicial system in the Republic of Croatia” took place in the multifunctional space of Matis Absolut Lounge in Zagreb.
The guests were addressed by Vedrana Šimundža-Nikolić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, who emphasised that an independent, efficient and modern judiciary is key to addressing the everyday needs of contemporary society.
“This very project, with a total value of over 12 million Euro, has enabled a professional judiciary equipped for all modern day challenges,” said State Secretary Šimundža- Nikolić. “The main foundation of every area of social activity is people. The project therefore focused in particular on strengthening the competencies of the heads and civil servants of judicial authorities.”
The activities of the project included the training of over a thousand judicial employees in various areas; upgrades of the e-Spis (e-File) system, which was introduced to administrative courts and the High Administrative Court and adapted for the Civil Department of the Supreme Court; development and upgrades of electronic services: e-NoticeBoard, e-Communication, Judges’ Portal, electronic services for citizens and public web services for IT systems; analysis of the existing state of IT architecture and upgrade of the case tracking system (CTS) of state attorney’s offices.
Furthermore, to optimise business processes in courts and state attorney’s offices, recommendations were made for the introduction of optimised and new business processes, amendments to the Court Rules of Procedure and the Rules of Procedure for State Attorney’s Offices were proposed, and workshops were held on the business processes related to reporting and recording of data and on the proposed amendments to the Ordinance on the Collection and Analysis of Statistical and Other Data on the Operation of Courts and State Attorney’s Offices.
After State Secretary Šimundža-Nikolić, the guests of the conference were addressed by Nada Trgovčević-Letica, Head of Sector at the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, followed by the presentation of the outputs of the project by Ivana Čukman-Batinić from the Independent Sector for Digitalisation of Justice and Public Administration and Marina Uzelac Milina and Justina Skoko Letilović from the Directorate for Organisation of the Judiciary.
General project information
The Grant Agreement was signed on 30 July 2018, and the project implementation period ends on 30 May 2023.
The total value of the project is EUR 12,087,762.96, and it is co-financed from the European Social Fund under the Operational Programme Efficient Human Resources 2014-2020.
The overall objective of the project is to ensure a more efficient, modern and professional judiciary.
The target group comprises judges, state attorneys and deputy state attorneys as well as civil servants in the judicial bodies of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration.
The project has produced a number of outputs, notably:
- A study of the complexity of court cases was developed as a result of field surveys conducted in various courts across Croatia.
- The study includes recommendations for the improvement of relevant by-laws.
- At the expert meeting of judges, representatives of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, members of the Working Group and external experts, the results of the study of the complexity of cases and recommendations for the improvement of implementing regulations were presented.
- Optimisation of business processes in courts and state attorney’s offices
- Amendments to the regulatory framework for the courts and state attorney’s offices were proposed (Court Rules of Procedure, Rules of Procedure for the State Attorney’s Offices, Ordinance on the Collection and Analysis of Statistical and Other Data on the Operation of Courts and State Attorney’s Offices).
- Workshops on the proposed regulatory amendments were delivered for judicial officials and civil servants.
- Strengthening the competencies and capacities of the heads of judicial authorities and civil servants in judicial authorities
- A snaphot and analysis of existing professional knowledge and competencies was made, and 14 workshops were organised for the staff of courts and state attorney’s offices.
- Topics of the workshops included management skills, motivation of employees, communication skills and IT skills (MS Office).
- Upgrades of the court case management system e-Spis (e-File)
- Significant improvements to the system, which include technological and business adjustments and public portals and services.
- Upgrade of the case tracking system (CTS) of the state attorney’s offices, a current state analysis and development of an Action Plan for System Architecture.
- Procurement of 800 sets for the use of speech-to-text programmes and related user training, along with IT equipment (2100 all-in-one PCs, 500 laptops, 600 printers, 150 scanners) for the courts and state attorney’s offices.
