The ECBA Spring conference was held in the beautiful city of Budapest lying on the banks of the river Danube The conference traditionally started with a reception on Friday in a characteristic old building of the Károlyi Palace, Museum of Literature Petőfi. There were welcome addresses by the ECBA Chair Prof. Dr. Holger Matt and by Dr. László Réti, President of the Budapest Bar Association.

The main topic of the conference was “Fight against corruption and the reality of defence in these cases“. The conference took place in the auditorium of the Hungarian and Budapest Bar Association on the Saturday and started with welcoming speeches by the ECBA Chair Holger Matt and Péter Csonka, JHA Coordinator, Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU.
This was followed by a session of two speakers. Prof. Peter Hack, from ELTE University, Hungary, gave a presentation on anti-corruption legal instruments in the field of criminal law, and criminal procedural law, wherein the Transparency International´s Global Corruption Report and the National Integrity System were mentioned. The second speaker  was Prosecutor General from Hungary Mr Dr. Péter Polt. He talked about the effectiveness of the anti-corruption measures in practice and highlighted the main points of problematic areas. He also spoke of the new developments if the field of combating corruption.

After a worthwhile discussion and a refreshing break it was time for the presentations on current projects.
Mr Jonathan Mitchell (ECBA) and Ms Jodie Blackstock (JUSTICE) presented the project which aims at providing an accurate body of evidence from practising lawyers all over the EU with regards to how the European Arrest Warrant is working in practice. The EU countries whose lawyers are presently helping to compile the evidence include: Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Italy, Ireland, and Greece. Hans van de Wal from Belgium gave an update on the Cross Border Financial Crime working group. Andreas Kadar, Co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee presented the Pilot Project for the Reform of the Hungarian Criminal Legal Aid System. The participants were also informed about the Anti-trust working group by Kai Hart-Hönig and Cornelia Riehle presented the training project „Criminal defence in the context of European criminal justice and judicial cooperation in the EU - A series of six training events, Academy of European Law (ERA)“ in cooperation with the ECBA.

The afternoon started with a Panel of Defence Practitioners on the challenges of defending persons accused of corruption. Mr Scott Crosby, chair of the Panel, opened the session by giving an introduction on the EU Anti-Corruption activity and policy . The next speaker was Prof. Vahit Biçak who talked about the strengthening of anti-corruption in Turkey and the reform of the Penal Code. Mr Ádám Földes, representative of Transparency International presented the project which aims at the prevention of corruption related crimes.  Mr Kevin Roberts introduced to the participants the UK Bribery Act. The Guidance on the UK Bribery Act and its examples were used as a basis for the discussion. Kai Hart-Hönig and Pal Szilagyi were also panel members.

The closing session, chaired by Mr Roland Kier, ECBA Secretary was as usual dedicated to the recent developments and proposed reforms affecting the legal profession in the European Union and has provided everyone with useful updates on key developments in criminal law and criminal procedure in the various jurisdictions. Speakers of this session were Mr Benjamin Borsodi from Switzerland, Ms Vânia Costa Ramos from Portugal, Mr Miroslav Krutina from Czech Republic, Mr Werner Franke from Germany and Mr Tom Ole Røed from Norway.

The conference was concluded by the ECBA General Assembly and the election of the representatives of the Executive Committee and the Advisory Board of the ECBA.

After a hard day’s work delegates enjoyed dinner in the pleasant atmosphere of the beautiful restaurant Spoon Cafe & Lounge on the Danube, which had an amazing view.

The ECBA thanks everyone who attended and contributed to the success of this conference.
 
 Report by Ondrej Laciak