The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, on Thursday 3 December, illustrated to MEPs of the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) the toolkit that the Commission had presented the previous day to speed up the digitalisation of EU judicial systems (see EUROPE 12614/12).
“Until the Covid crisis, digitalisation of Justice was mainly an issue of efficiency. This has also now become a necessity to ensure uninterrupted access to Justice”, he said.
In its Communication, the Commission expresses its willingness to present next year a legislative proposal to further digitalise cross-border judicial procedures. In particular, it is expected to consider the possibility of introducing an obligation for Member States to accept electronic communication for these cross-border procedures, without however excluding the possibility of continuing to use paper communication, if necessary, he explained.
The Commission will also examine the possibility of setting up online portals allowing citizens and businesses to submit applications and communicate with the relevant national authorities electronically, he added.
MEPs welcomed these new initiatives and recognised the need to speed up the digitalisation of the EU’s judicial systems. However, they raised a number of questions, including the financing of the investments that will be needed in the Member States to carry out these initiatives.
In this respect, Didier Reynders confirmed that the EU would provide financial support to the Member States through the Justice programme, but also through other programmes, in particular the Digital Europe programme, the Cohesion Fund and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
The Commission also encouraged Member States to include the digitalisation of Justice in their recovery programmes in order to benefit from EU funds through the Next Generation EU instrument, he explained.
Another concern raised by several MEPs is how the European Commission intends to ensure the protection of privacy and personal data. Without giving further details, Mr Reynders replied that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) would fully apply to these initiatives.
Gilles Lebreton (Identity and Democracy, France), for his part, warned against the risk of a digital divide. “A number of litigants, especially older ones, will be totally lost if they are required to use this kind of electronic procedure”, he said.
To MEP Patrick Breyer (Greens/EFA, Germany), who wanted to know how the Commission intended to safeguard judicial independence with the use of these computer systems and expressed concern about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to make judicial decisions, Commissioner Reynders assured that judicial independence would remain a priority and that all measures would be taken to prevent abuses.
On AI, he recognised the risks to fundamental rights. “The decision must be made by a real person, by a human being, by a real flesh-and-blood judge” he assured the MEP. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)