1Subject to Article 42, paragraph 3 and 4, of this Law, the Councils shall organize at least every 3 months a lateral transfer procedure for any position that:

ais vacant;

bis expected to become vacant within three months.

2The Councils shall announce the lateral transfer procedure and invite magistrates meeting the following criteria to put up their candidacy:

amagistrates exercising their functions in courts or prosecution offices at the same l level as the vacancy;

bmagistrates exercising their function at a lower level court or prosecution office and who have been evaluated at least two times, with the evaluation of ‘very good’ in the previous two evaluations,

cassistant magistrates who have previously worked at the court or prosecution office of the same level as a vacant position,

çin regard to vacancies at the appeal level, a magistrates in the mobility scheme, having he professional experience, in the sense of Article 47 of this law, where they have served at least four years in the mobility scheme and during this period has been assigned at least for 1 year to a position to the appeal level.

3A candidate having assumed the function of the member of the Council shall be excluded from the lateral transfer proceedings during the period exercising the function as members and three years following the end of the term.

4The public announcement under paragraph 2 of this Article shall be published at least at the Council’s website and it shall contain the necessary information on the vacant positions and it must specify:

athe deadline for the application, which must be not less than 2 weeks after the date of the call for applications,

bthe information and documents attached to the application,

cthe procedure for applications and on where the application has to be submitted.

5Following the announcement of the vacancy, the magistrate may apply for not more than three vacant positions or positions expected to become vacant. If the magistrate is applying for more than one position, he must rank them to his preference.

6A magistrate who has not had in the past 5 years at least 1 year of professional experience in the area of law relevant for the vacant position or who has a disciplinary sanction in force shall not be eligible for putting up his candidacy.

7The Councils shall review the applications and shall rank magistrates meeting the requirements according to the following records:

a"firstly, to two previous performance evaluations, including those as seconded magistrate, whereby taking account of: i) the experience in a secondment position and as magistrate in a mobility scheme shall be considered an added value; ii) in case of more magistrates with the same performance evaluation grades, the magistrates within the group of magistrates with the highest performance evaluation grade shall be ranked according to a scoring scheme, established by the High Judicial Council. "

bsecondarily, where following the performance evaluation referred to in letter ‘a’ paragraph 7 of this Article, more than one magistrate appears to have the highest scores, the Council shall rank the magistrates by reference to the specific professional experience relevant for the open position;

cthirdly, in case the performance evaluation referred to in letter ‘b’ of paragraph 7 of this Article results in more than one magistrate having the highest scores, the Council shall rank the magistrates by reference to seniority as magistrate.

8In case of lateral transfers at a first instance court or prosecution office, where there were no applications under paragraph 7, of this Article, the lateral transfer procedure shall be opened for the magistrates who were not yet evaluated two times. They shall be ranked based concurrently on:

aon the respective ethical and professional performance evaluation, under paragraph 6 of this Article,

bon the ranking on the School of Magistrate’s graduates list or on the professional assessment of the re-appointed magistrates under Article 36 of this Law.

9In case of lateral transfers at first instance court or prosecution office, where no applications under paragraph 8 of this Article are filed, the lateral transfer procedure shall be opened for the magistrates who were never evaluated. They shall be ranked in accordance with paragraph 8, letter ‘b’ of this Article.

10The Councils shall offer the vacant positions to magistrates in the order of ranking under paragraphs 7, 8 to 9 of this law and in conjunction with the rules established under paragraph 12 of this Article.

11The rules of Article 41 paragraphs 2 to 4 shall apply mutatis mutandis.

12The Councils shall more detailed rules, which set out:

acriteria for the ethical and professional performance evaluations among magistrates with the same evaluation grades;

bcriteria for weighting the professional experience relevant for the vacant position;

cthe procedure to be followed in cases of equality of scores;

çthe application and modification of this Article for the temporary vacancies.