ERA’s 35th Board of Trustees Meeting took place on 12-13 June 2026 at the ERA Conference Centre in Trier and online, gathering Trustees from across Europe to reflect on the Academy’s work and future priorities.
Opening and Accession of the Republic of Moldova
The meeting was opened by Marc van der Woude, Chair of the Board of Trustees, who welcomed participants and set the tone for two days of discussions focused on the Academy’s programmatic and organisational focus to its long-term strategic positioning.
A particularly significant moment of the plenary session was the formal accession of the Republic of Moldova as a new Patron of the ERA Foundation, marked by the signing of the agreement in the presence of Vladislav Cojuhari, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Moldova. This milestone reinforces ERA’s commitment to judicial training in candidate countries.
General business report and Q& A session with the Trustees
In the general business report for 2025-2026, Trustees reviewed developments across ERA’s core activities, including programme trends, participant statistics, financial and organisational performance, digitalisation efforts, green transition initiatives, and communication strategy. The Management Board also engaged in an interactive Q&A session with Trustees, providing further insights into current operational priorities.
European Judicial Training Strategy
Special attention was given to the European Commission’s Judicial Training Strategy (2025-2030), presented by Wojciech Postulski, Team Leader for European Judicial Training at DG JUST, who highlighted expectations towards judicial training providers and underlined ERA’s important role as a key training provider within the European legal training landscape.
Strategic Working Groups Day 1
Trustees continued with a series of working group discussions on strategic topics shaping ERA’s future. These included innovative approaches to legal training such as gamification, and preparations for the 2026 European Forum of the Legal Professions.
Programme review and emerging topics
On the second day, working groups explored programme priorities for 2027 across key areas of European law, including asylum and immigration law, company and financial law, competition and intellectual property, constitutional and human rights law, criminal justice, environmental and food law, civil judicial cooperation, labour law, and taxation. Further sessions addressed cross-cutting developments such as global outreach (based on a research project conducted by the Hague University of Applied Sciences), artificial intelligence in legal education, and preparations for ERA’s upcoming Jubilee Congress in 2027.
Strategy 2028 Working Group
A dedicated Strategy 2028 workshop on both days allowed Trustees to further sharpen ERA’s long-term roadmap, with emphasis on strengthening institutional resilience, expanding international engagement, and adapting training methodologies to emerging legal and technological developments.
The next Board of Trustees Meeting will take place in October 2027, within the framework of ERA’s 35th anniversary celebrations and the Governing Board meeting.
