1The candidates for judges and candidates for prosecutors shall accomplish their professional internship respectively at the courts and prosecution offices during the third year of initial training. The professional internship shall have a duration of 12 months, starting in July and ending in June of the following year.

2The Councils shall determine the courts and prosecution offices of first instance for accomplishing the internship for candidates for magistrates, by taking into account of the following indicators:

athe availability of mentor judges and prosecutors,

bthe court and prosecution office infrastructure,

cthe availability of working space and facilities for the candidate magistrates,

çthe possibility to get acquainted with a wide area of laws and a variety of cases during the professional internship.

3The Councils shall appoint a panel of mentor magistrates, with a duration of three years, with the right to reappointment. Each mentor magistrate must concurrently fulfil the following criteria:

ahave at least five years’ experience as a judge or prosecutor,

bhave been evaluated in accordance with this law as at least ‘very good’ in the last ethical and professional performance evaluation;

chave successfully completed a training for mentors in the last three years delivered by the School of Magistrates;

çhave not been subject to disciplinary measures;

dhave met the legal deadlines for investigating or adjudicating cases, at least in the previous year before being appointed as mentor.

4The Council shall assign each candidate magistrate to a mentor magistrate with the aim of ensuring that:

adifferent mentors being in place for each of the three consecutive periods of four months;

bobtaining professional experience in the fields of civil, criminal and administrative law;

c"being involved as much as possible in the aspects of everyday work of the mentor magistrate, regardless of the fact that she/he is not assuming the function of the magistrate yet, including: i) explanations and discussions of pending cases, ii) participation in hearings or interviews, iii) case management issues, iv) file-management experience, v) preparation and discussion of draft decisions, vi) experience in court or prosecution office administration, vii) aspects for the ethical standards and rules of conduct for magistrates. "

5A mentor magistrate to whom a candidate magistrate has been assigned shall not take part in every 10th case assignment by lot at the court or prosecution office where he/she is exercising the function.

6A mentor magistrate must evaluate the ethical and professional performance of each candidate magistrate by reference to the evaluation criteria and grades set out in this Law.

7During the professional internship, the candidate magistrate shall be entitled to 25 working days of paid annual leave, 15 of them during the month of August, at the same time as the mentor magistrate. The chairperson of the court or prosecution office is in charge of granting the annual leave, following a consultation with the concerned mentor magistrate.

8Following a proposal of the School of Magistrates, the Councils shall issue guidance for the quality assessment of the mentoring activities.

9The Councils shall elaborate jointly further rules for the appointment of mentoring courts, prosecution offices and magistrates, for the professional internship program, the ethical and professional performance and quality evaluation of candidate magistrates in order to ensure an optimized training of candidate magistrates.