Included in the Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, the Workshop on the “Quality of Legislation – The European Union Experience and the National Experiences” starts tomorrow, Tuesday, 25 of February, at 17:00, in the Auditorium of the Centre for Legal and Judicial Training (Luso-International Building, 18th floor).

Incorporated in the first and second editions of the Law-Making Programme – which began on 3 December 2002 and 7 January 2003, respectively, and will proceed until 3 April – this workshop brings to Macao specialists coming from three countries, who will focus on the experience of the European institutions have in this area and also on the national experiences of the country of origin of each speaker.

From Portugal comes Dr. Ana Vargas, Director of the Edition Service of the Portuguese Parliament and member of the Portuguese Committee for the Simplification of Regulation; from Belgium comes Dr. Kathy Vanhoorne, Member of the department responsible for the Quality and Legislative Simplification of the Office of the Belgium Prime-Minister; and from Italy comes Dr. Luigi Carbone, Judge at the “Consiglio di Stato” and lecturer at the Italian and French public administration training institutes, the “Scuola Superiore della Pubblica Amministrazione” and the “École National d’Administration”, at the Universities of Rome, Naples and Bologna, and at several private Institutes.

The Workshop takes place until 28 February and will count on the participation of approximately seventy jurists, coming from all areas of the public administration, who are attending the two editions of the Law-Making Programme. The organization of this Workshop as well as of the Course is at the responsibility of the Centre for Legal and Judicial Training, and the language mediums foreseen for this activity will be Portuguese and English.

The Cooperation Programme in the Legal Field between the European Union and Macao, in which this Workshop is integrated, has as its overall objective the “Consolidation of the Macao Legal System” and will have a duration of four years, extending into the year 2006. The total budget for the programme will be 1.980.000 euros (approximately 15.480.000 patacas), shared in equal parts by the European Union and Macao.

The co-ordination of the Co-operation Programme is at the responsibility of the International Law Office, being the organization of the pertaining actions ensured by several other entities of the MSAR’s Government, namely the Centre for Legal and Judicial Training, the Justice Department, the Economic Department and the Institute of European Studies, other than the International Law Office itself.