Representatives from two EWMI projects were selected to be presenters at a large anti-corruption conference held in Bucharest, Romania, March 19 – 22, 2012. Presenting information about successful court administration techniques for countering corruption were Ken Stuart, Resident Adviser for the EWMI World Bank funded Court Optimization project in Romania, and Sonja Prostran, Deputy Chief of Party for the EWMI USAID funded Separation of Powers Program in Serbia. Sponsored jointly by the United States Department of State Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, the Conference had attendees from twenty-eight different countries (26 European countries, the US, and Canada).

Judge Stuart and Ms. Prostran identified reforms used successfully in EWMI projects in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania that both improved court efficiency and management and improved a court’s ability to prevent corruption. Highlights from their presentations included a discussion of the role of increased court transparency in fighting corruption, the positive results from introducing professional court administrators in Serbia, court staff management techniques that reduced opportunities for corruption in Bulgaria, and case management and court records reform efforts in Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania.