The meeting of European Ministers of Justice on Thursday 6 June in Luxembourg will not feature major progress on legislative dossiers, but instead forward-looking discussions on criminal law and mutual recognition. Ministers will also formally give their green light to the opening of negotiations for cross-border access to electronic evidence.
Digitisation. On legislative matters, the Ministers will hold a political orientation debate on the proposal for a Regulation digitising cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters and that on the service of judicial documents by electronic means.(see EUROPE 12031/12).
To make progress at the technical level, the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU considers that it is time for Ministers to decide whether or not cross-border electronic exchange by a computer system, as proposed by the Commission (see EUROPE 12235/4), should be mandatory.
Overall, opinions are divided. Some countries support the mandatory use of the system, provided they have a longer transition period for its implementation, and exemptions (see EUROPE 12265/10).
Other Member States prefer optional use, while some delegations suggested that the use of the system should be mandatory for the service of documents and optional for the taking of evidence.
Ministers will also be invited to choose between using an existing IT solution - the e-Codex system - or implementing a new solution and choosing between a centralised or decentralised IT system.
Assignment of claims. Ministers will take note of a second progress report (see EUROPE 12265/11) on the technical work in the EU Council on the proposal for a Regulation on the law applicable to the third-party effects of assignments of claims (see EUROPE 11979/1).
No in-depth discussion is to be expected at the meeting, according to a European source.
Electronic evidence. Ministers will formally adopt the two EU Council Decisions authorising the European Commission to: - open negotiations for an EU-US agreement on cross-border access to electronic evidence held by a service provider in criminal proceedings (see EUROPE 12259/6); - participate, on behalf of the EU, in negotiations on the Second Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (see EUROPE 12187/2).
The two draft decisions, which clearly indicate to the Commission that the Council of the EU wishes to be closely involved in these negotiations, were already endorsed by the Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) on 22 May (see EUROPE 12260/26).
Data retention. The Council of the EU will also adopt conclusions requesting the Commission to prepare an in-depth study on possible solutions for telecom data retention for law enforcement purposes, including the examination of a future legislative initiative (see EUROPE 12234/13).
The idea here is to formalise the previous discussions that took place at the Justice Council to formalise the requests to the Commission, explained the same source.
Criminal law. The Council will also discuss, in camera, the future of EU substantive criminal law, on the basis of a Presidency report, the main conclusion of which is that the EU should continue to exercise its competence prudently to establish minimum rules on the definition of criminal offences and sanctions (see EUROPE 12244/9).
A diplomatic source said on Wednesday 5 June that the report should enjoy broad support from Member States.
Mutual recognition. Ministers will also discuss strengthening the use of mutual recognition instruments for judicial decisions in the EU, again on the basis of a Presidency report.
The report assesses the current legal framework in this area and aims to measure what has been achieved so far, determine whether there are any gaps or deficiencies and examine how these could be effectively addressed (see EUROPE 12234/14).
In the same vein, the Council will adopt conclusions on synergies between the European judicial cooperation unit, Eurojust, and other networks for judicial cooperation in criminal matters (see EUROPE 12259/7).
It should be noted that the topic will also be discussed at lunch, where ministers will discuss judicial training to foster mutual trust.
European Public Prosecutor's Office. The Commission will inform Ministers of the progress made in setting up the European Public Prosecutor's Office since March.
In a note, dated 3 June, addressed to the Council, the Commission stresses that "The negotiations between the two EU institutions need to resume as soon as possible, in order to ensure the timely appointment of the European Chief Prosecutor (see EUROPE 12232/11) who has a key role in the setting up of the EPPO".
It also states that the majority of Member States have submitted their three candidates for the post of European Public Prosecutor and invites those who have not yet done so to send their applications as soon as possible.
The note also recalls that Austria, Spain, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal and Cyprus were drawn by lot on 20 May last to have European prosecutors with a three-year term of office instead of six years, non-renewable, in the future European Public Prosecutor's Office (see EUROPE 12266/10).
It should be noted that Lithuania will inform the other Member States of the risk of persecution faced by several of its judges as a result of the March 2019 judgement of the Lithuanian Court on the Soviet repressive actions of 13 January 1991.
Lithuania intends to "draw the attention of the Ministers to the actions of Russia which demonstrate disrespect to the rule of law, human life as well as sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of neighbouring countries", says a note dated 22 May.
Finally, as this is the last Justice Council under the Romanian Presidency, Finland will present its work programme. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)