The legal system and the judiciary that applies and enforces it have a wide-ranging impact on economic behaviour and thereby on the performance of the economy of
nations, as the economic literature shows. However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms and the extent of these effects. 

The European Commission has invited the ENCJ to contribute to the European Commission Rule of Law report. This project is meant to provide an annual assessment of both positive and negative significant developments concerning the Rule of Law in EU Member States. The reference period for the 2021 report is 2020. . 

On 8 December 2016 the ENCJ General Assembly suspended the observer status of the High Council for Judges and Prosecutors of Turkey as it  no longer complied with the ENCJ Statutes and was no longer an institution which is independent of the executive and legislature ensuring the final responsibility for the support of the judiciary in the independent delivery of justice.

On 27 October 2020 the ENCJ Board sent a letter to the European Commission in which it calls upon the Commisison to act in the case of the recent appointment of the President of the Supreme Court (Kuria) of Hungary. Click to go to letter 

Being part of the European Union’s judicial area, the judiciary of the Republic of Lithuania cannot stay on the outside reacting to the threatened independence of the judiciary of the Republic of Poland. Lack of such independence has already affected the mutual trust of courts of Poland and other European Union Member States.

On 10 July 2020, the European Commission published the 2020 EU Justice Scoreboard - a comparative overview of the efficiency, quality and independence of justice systems in all EU Member States.

On11 June 2020 the ENCJ organised a webconference with the title " The Rule of Law: protection is now urgent. European Commissioner for Justice and Consumers Protention Mr Didier Reynders and Mr Michal Simecka, Member of the EU Parliament for Renew Europe group - addressed the attendees. It was also the the day that the mandate of Mr Kees Sterk as President of the ENCJ expired. He addressed the ENCJ Members, Observers and guests for a last time.

This is the link to the recording on You Tube.

And for the written speeches:

The Tuomioistuinvirasto / Domstolsverket / National Courts Administration of Finland was established on 1 January 2020 with the purpose of strengthening the independence of the judiciary.Previously most of the tasks of the National Courts Administration were handled by the Ministry of Justice. At the General Assembly of 10 June 2020 the application of the National Court Administrtaion of Finland to become an ENCJ member was unanimously agreed by the Members. 

At the ENCJ General Assembly of 10 June 2020 the project team reports were adopted. 

The ENCJ report 2019-2020 on the Independence, Accountability and Quality of the Judiciary: Measuring for improvement deals with several issues

In relation to Independence and Accountability the main findings are that 

During an online meeting on 10 June 2020 the ENCJ General Assembly elected Filippo Donati as the new President (mandate June 2020- June 2022). Filippo Donati is a non-judicial member of the Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura of Italy. He is a full professor of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Florence.

In addition 4 new Board members were elected: