CEDH · PRESS;GENERAL;ENG — 15 avril 2008

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .sFE10DC93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s40F41F73 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .sA1D3DA2E { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .sADADF4A7 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline } .sC7EAD8B { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS   271 15.4.2008   Press release issued by the Registrar   Visit to the Court of the German Chancellor     President Costa has received a visit from Mrs Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Germany. In welcoming the Chancellor, President Costa, accompanied by Mrs Renate Jaeger, judge elected in respect of Germany, and the Registrar, Mr Erik Fribergh, emphasised the importance of this visit. He recalled that Germany had been one of the first States in the Council of Europe to ratify the European Convention on Human Rights and to accept the right of individual petition. The first judgment concerning Germany dated back to 1968. He remarked upon the Court’s close cooperation with the German authorities and the fact that their commitment to human rights converged with the role of the Court.   Mrs Merkel indicated that the Court’s case-law was of great importance for her. She referred in particular to the Court’s increasing role since 1990 for the new democracies, as well as in the context of German reunification. She emphasised the importance of the right of individual application, whilst recognising that the number of applications received by the Court was considerable.   The President presented the Court’s general situation to the Chancellor and indicated that, whilst being determined to continue fulfilling its mission, it needed to find a second wind. He particularly stressed how important it was for the Court to secure Russia’s ratification of Protocol no. 14. He also referred to the independence of Judges and the need for satisfactory welfare and pension schemes in this connection. President Costa expressed his gratitude to the Chancellor for the German authorities’ decision to second German judges to work in the Registry. He also presented the situation regarding applications lodged against Germany: he considered that the number of cases was not excessive (about 3% of all applications) and that this could be explained by the filtering of the Federal Constitutional Court, but that there was still some room for improvement, for example by introducing in Germany an effective domestic remedy in respect of the length of proceedings.   Mrs Merkel replied that she was particularly sensitive to the question of Protocol no. 14, which she had discussed on a number of occasions with President Putin, and that she would continue to raise the issue with his successor Mr Medvedev. She added that domestic human rights training for German judges was to be re-enhanced. She also indicated that solutions would be found to address the question of excessively long proceedings, even though it was not a simple matter.   The Chancellor gladly accepted President Costa’s invitation to visit the Court’s Central Office, where hundreds of applications arrive every day. She was very impressed by the volume of letters, in many different languages, which had to be processed by the Court on a daily basis. She commended the staff of the Court’s Registry for their hard work and requested that her best wishes be conveyed to both Judges and staff.   At the close of the visit, the President expressed the wish that the dialogue initiated on this occasion would be pursued in the future, and this idea met with the Chancellor’s approval.   ***   Further information about the Court can be found on its Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).   Press contacts Emma Hellyer (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 15) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Paramy Chanthalangsy (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 54 91) Sania Ivedi (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 59 45)   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.