You can find all information about Riga at this website

Alongside her public service career, she has lectured on European law and trained judges and notaries. She is President of the Board of the Latvian Association for European Union Law, a founding member of the Association of European Competition Law Judges, and President of the e-Competitions Bulletin Advisory Board.

Project Coordinator - Criminal Justice & Digitalisation

+32 494 175 918

veronica.molina@ejtn.eu

Alina Secrieru

Head of Unit Strategic Coordination, Digitalisation and Outreach

+32 483 34 83 84

alina.secrieru@ejtn.eu

Training Expert

+37129298572

kristine.lemantovica@tla.gov.lv

Password: Sl3p3ni_2015!

Dress code: smart casual

Known as the “Castle of Light”, the National Library of Latvia is one of the country's most iconic cultural landmarks and a symbol of knowledge, democratic values and Latvia’s path towards freedom. The guided tour will provide participants with insights into the library’s architecture, cultural significance and role as a centre of knowledge and public life.

Participants can also explore the library virtually in advance through this virtual tour: National Library of Latvia Virtual Tour.

Street Pizza

Address: Elizabetes iela 8A or Meža iela 4A

One of Riga’s standout Neapolitan pizzerias, featured in 50 Top Pizza Europe for several years. Think authentic wood fired pizza, 72 hour fermented dough and great Italian ingredients. Our pick: Meža iela 4A. It’s outside the city centre, but the atmosphere definitely makes up for it. However, Elizabetes iela 8A is in the city center and the pizza is as good!

MaMā Bistro

Address: Blaumaņa iela 9-19

At first glance, the restaurant's name might seem rather unassuming. But don’t let that fool you. The food is seriously wow.

It’s a modern take on Latvian home cooking, inspired by childhood memories and familiar local flavours. The setting feels like a cosy French bistro, while the food stays distinctly Latvian. Our pick: All my foreign friends who have tried several Latvian restaurants have ended up loving this one the most.

Shōyu Ramen

Address: Ausekļu iela 20

Feeling cold? Go for ramen.

Shōyu is known for handmade noodles, rich broths and an authentic Japanese approach. It has also been awarded the MICHELIN Bib Gourmand for three consecutive years. Tip: If you’re going for dinner, book a table in advance: shoyu.lv

Kūkotava

Address: Tērbatas iela 10/12

A classic Riga pastry café serving handmade cakes, Latvian sweets and European style desserts. My French friends approved the croissants too! Must try: Their honey cake is out of this world.

Coffee:

KALVE

One of Riga’s best known specialty coffee roasteries and cafés, with excellent coffee and locally roasted beans.

There are several locations around the city centre, so just type KALVE into Google Maps and pick the closest one.

Rocket Bean

Another great Latvian specialty coffee roastery with cafés around Riga. Excellent coffee, locally roasted beans and a relaxed atmosphere. A safe choice when you simply want really good coffee.

Breakfast/Brunch:

Yolkhaus

Address: Dzirnavu iela 42

A stylish all day breakfast spot specialising in eggs, generous brunches and good coffee. Great for a slow morning or a proper brunch. You won't be disappointed.

Café Mimosa

Address: Strēlnieku iela 8

A chic café in Riga’s Art Nouveau district, serving creative all day breakfasts inspired by flavours from around the world.

Good choice for brunch with a prettier, more elegant (read: more pricier) setting.

Fancy:

Chef’s Corner

Address: Jeruzalemes iela 5

Looking for a steak to die for? This is your place.

A high end European restaurant featured in the MICHELIN Guide. It’s on the pricier side, so we’d save it for a special occasion or when you feel like splurging.

Snatch

Address: Elizabetes iela 39

A stylish Italian restaurant known for homemade pasta, creative dishes and a lively atmosphere.

It’s also been awarded a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand, so definitely worth adding to your list if you’re in the mood for Italian.

Throughout his career, he has been a pivotal figure in modernizing the French judicial system, notably by leading the Procédure Pénale Numérique (PPN) program to fully digitize criminal procedures and directing the CASSIOPEE project, which created a centralized application for tracking criminal proceedings nationwide. His expertise extends to combating organized crime and terrorism, having served as Deputy Prosecutor in Bobigny, worked in the national counter-terrorism unit, and worked in Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation.

Most recently, Haffide BOULAKRAS played a crucial role as ministerial delegate for the "États généraux de la Justice," a groundbreaking initiative aimed at improving the judicial system through comprehensive citizen consultation and professional reflection. His strategic vision and commitment to digital transformation and judicial efficiency have established him as a key innovator in the French judicial landscape.

Ms Derveaux has served as Secretary General of the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) since January 2023 and is currently in her second mandate, running until the end of 2028. Based in Brussels, she leads the EJTN Secretariat and steers the Network’s strategic development, coordination, and long-term priorities at a time of profound transformation for European justice. Under her leadership and working closely with national member institutions, EJTN drives judicial training as a cornerstone of the Rule of Law, mutual trust, and effective judicial cooperation across Europe.

Ms Derveaux’s professional career brings together judicial, managerial, and advisory responsibilities within key justice institutions. During her tenure as Deputy Director and Head of International Affairs at the French National School for the Judiciary (Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature – ENM), she also represented the institution on the Board of the International Organization for Judicial Training (IOJT) and served as the French contact point for the Euro-Arab Network of Judicial Training. Moreover, she has held positions as Vice-Prosecutor at the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office, Investigative Judge in Nice, and judge in both civil and criminal matters at the Cambrai Court. She also worked at the cabinet of the French Minister of Justice as an adviser on European affairs and international cooperation, where she contributed to the negotiations leading to the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), among other dossiers.

Ms Derveaux actively contributes to shaping key debates on the digital transformation of justice, the development of a common European area of justice, and the role of justice practitioners in safeguarding the Rule of Law, fundamental rights, and gender equality across European justice systems. Alongside her institutional responsibilities, she has lectured for several years on criminal procedure at the University of Valenciennes.

Ms Derveaux holds an advanced degree in law, including a Master’s in Private Law from Paris II Panthéon-Assas University.

AI training resources for justice practitioners

• Existing training materials, resources, initiatives, projects, and pilots on AI in justice

• Opportunities for cooperation and coordination between institutions

The judiciary and AI: understanding the present, shaping the future

Learning from justice practitioners: what first-hand experiences tell us about AI in justice

• What does it take to move the judiciary from curiosity to competence in the use of generative AI, and how can AI literacy (i.e., prompting skills) be developed effectively?

• How can AI support judicial work without replacing human judgment, and how should its quality and value be assessed?

• How can cultural and age barriers to new technologies be overcome, and how can AI be integrated into daily judicial work while fostering trust in innovation?

Where AI meets the Rule of Law: safeguards for justice practitioners

• What does transparency, traceability and explainability of an AI system mean in practice - and how do you evaluate it as a judge or prosecutor?

• How can justice professionals identify and respond to procedural fairness and fundamental rights risks when AI is used in judicial processes?

• Where should justice professionals draw the line when using AI, and what actions should be taken when those limits are reached?

• Artificial Intelligence Ethics Charter

• Artificial Intelligence Strategy

AI beyond the judiciary: multidisciplinary perspectives

• Embracing the use of AI: initial resistance, erosion of critical skills and long-term transformation of judicial culture

• Generational gaps and the rise of a generation shaped by AI

• AI, judicial-decision making and fundamental rights

• How AI use by lawyers is already reshaping judicial proceedings and how justice practitioners can learn from it

• Risk of incomplete data and biased decisions in legal AI tools

Rule vs. reality: navigating the grey zones of ‘Shadow AI’ in judicial practice

• The rise of Shadow AI in judicial work and its implications for the integrity of judicial proceedings

• Managing the pressure of uneven AI adoption: when colleagues are using AI and you are not - or when you are unsure whether you should be using it yourself

• Examples of AI use in judicial work

• Resistance to AI and generational and cultural differences in its adoption

Presentations will be uploaded after each session has taken place.

You can already find the presentation delivered by Thomas Russier, Head of the Artificial Intelligence Task Force of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI).

AI beyond the judiciary: multidisciplinary perspectives

• Lessons from the legal tech sector: what AI adoption looks like outside the judiciary, and what it can teach justice practitioners

• Real benefits vs. legitimate concerns: weighing tangible value against data leakage, bias, inaccuracy, and cybersecurity risks

• Overcoming resistance: addressing fear of replacement, lack of skills/confidence, and misconceptions about prompting and using AI tools

• What justice practitioners need to know about AI and digital forensics

Practitioner voices: coordinating AI training experiences, training needs and training priorities across Europe

• Follow up on Rounds I & II

• Best training practices: participants share concrete training experiences of AI in their judicial work

• Identification of training needs and coordination priorities for follow-up action

• Rapporteurs from each WS group present key insights, points of convergence and unresolved tensions

• Collective reflection: what does the judiciary need the most in response to the impact of AI?

🗣️ In this document you can find the division of the four groups for the workshops.

Participants will stay in the same group at all times. Only the experts will rotate between groups.

Each group should appoint a rapporteur during the first workshop, who will be responsible for reporting back during the plenary sessions.

Since 2024, she has been a consultant to the Ministry of Justice of Latvia, actively contributing to the establishment of the Justice Academy. In February 2025, she was appointed Director of the Justice Academy.

For her contribution to the justice sector, she has received several distinctions, including the Ministry of Justice Third-Class Honour Badge and a Certificate of Recognition from the Constitutional Court. She is also the author of several legal publications and actively contributes to the development of legal scholarship and the promotion of the rule of law.

She is currently an expert for the Council of Europe’s European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), particularly in the field of new information technologies and justice. She has also contributed as an expert to the CCJE, OSCE, TAIEX, and numerous EU IPA and twinning projects.

Kamel holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Public Law and a PhD in Law from Paris Pantheon Assas University. His Ph.D thesis, De la surveillance à la vigilance de l’Etat. Le contrôle des informations et des plateformes aux Etats-Unis (From surveillance to vigilance of the government. The control of information and platforms in the United States), has been awarded and published by Dalloz in 2024. His research focus on the regulation of AI and social media platforms, content moderation, data transfers and electronic surveillance and their consequences on freedom of expression, privacy and democracy.

You can contact Kamel at: k.el-hilali@unesco.org

He holds a PhD in European Contract Law and specialises in commercial law and European Union law.

A long-standing contributor to European judicial cooperation, he has been a member of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) since 2014 and an advisor to the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HJPC) since 2012. He also served as President of the Norwegian Association of Judges from 2018 to 2020.

He holds an LL.B. and Ph.D. from the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, was a visiting scholar at Columbia and Toronto, and previously practised as a solicitor.

Of particular relevance to this summit, he holds a Master of Science in Statistical Data Science from Ghent University and is an alumnus of the AI Summer School at KU Leuven.

His work focuses on the digital transformation of the justice system, including electronic case files, digital communication and the development and operation of IT solutions for courts and prosecutors’ offices. In recent years, artificial intelligence has become an important part of this work. He is involved in several projects exploring the practical use of AI in judicial proceedings, with a particular focus on systems designed to assist judges and prosecutors while preserving human responsibility for judicial decision-making. 

Among these projects is „GSJ“, a joint initiative of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria developed in cooperation with the Technical University of Munich and the University of Cologne. Based on several thousand anonymised civil case files, the project explores AI-supported tools such as automated timelines, structured analysis of parties’ submissions and assistance in drafting parts of judicial decisions. He is also involved in other AI projects in Information Security, User Support, or structuring judicial data to support the automated preparation of draft decisions. 

His particular interest lies in the opportunities and limits of AI in the justice system: how AI can reduce routine work, structure complex information and improve judicial workflows without transferring the actual exercise of judicial authority to machines. This also includes questions of transparency, accountability and the regulatory framework established by the EU AI Act. 

Since 2004, he has been working at the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Grosseto as an Expert Court Registrar. He is also the referent for statistics, responsible for the digitalisation of the office, and an EJTN Digital Ambassador 2025.

Alongside this work, her research examines the broader legal and regulatory implications of AI in judicial processes, with particular attention to the EU AI Act, the GDPR and fundamental rights.

Before commencing her doctoral research, she spent two years as a member of the Antwerp Bar, gaining valuable in practice experience as a lawyer in corporate law and dispute resolution. 

In recent years, he has focused particularly on the practical use of artificial intelligence, digitalisation and e-learning in the justice sector. He cooperates with the Czech Ministry of Justice on the implementation of AI in the judiciary and designs and delivers AI training for judges, prosecutors, court staff and other justice professionals.

His work focuses on practical, responsible and trustworthy use of AI, workflow automation and the effective integration of AI into judicial practice.

Her research focuses on private law from an economic perspective, particularly contract law, consumer protection, and the regulation of digital markets. She coordinates the European project Justice, Fundamental Rights and Artificial Intelligence (JuLIA) and is the principal investigator of the AlgorithmLaw and iConsumers projects, which examine algorithmic decision-making, digital markets, and their impact on fundamental and consumer rights.

She has been a visiting professor at several international institutions, including Brooklyn Law School, the University of Kassel, the University of Montenegro, and the University of Trento, and has conducted research at New York University and the University of the Western Cape.

With fifteen years of experience at the intersection of EU data protection, cybersecurity, and AI regulation, Francisco has held senior legal roles at Meta and WhatsApp Europe, where he led regulatory engagement with the European Commission, ENISA, and national supervisory authorities across multiple EU frameworks including NIS2, GDPR, and the AI Act.

He contributed directly to the ENISA ECASEC expert group on regulatory harmonisation and incident response, and his work influenced the final text of the Digital Omnibus and the ENISA guidelines on the NIS2 Implementing Act.

A former Policy Adviser at the European Parliament, Francisco is also the author of Cyber Decoded, a weekly newsletter on AI threats, cybersecurity, and EU digital regulation.

He is a member of the Strategic & Innovation Board of the Dutch Judiciary, Digital Working Group of the ENCJ and the European Cyberjustice Network of CEPEJ.

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Available in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic

Available in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic

Available in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic

• Group 1: Room No.420 (4th floor)

• Group 2: Room No.408 (4th floor)

• Group 3: Library (5th floor)

• Group 4: Room No.505 (5th floor)

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Nosaints | hidden bar is a sophisticated hidden cocktail bar in the heart of Old Riga, inspired by the classic speakeasy concept. It offers creative cocktails in an intimate setting. Google maps.

Distillers Republic - Local Craft Distillery & Bar is a cosy cocktail bar and local craft distillery in the historic cellars of Riga’s Old Town, producing its own gin and rum. It is a great option for experiencing something distinctly Latvian in a relaxed setting. Google Maps.

Tucked further away from the old town, you can find Skyline Bar at the Radisson Blu Latvija. It’s on the 26th floor and has the classic panoramic Riga skyline view, including the Old Town and city centre. Worth it for the views! Google Maps.