The EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders presented several initiatives for co-legislators, on 1 December, to modernise EU Member States’ judicial systems and boost digital data exchange between national administrations, for example on terrorism investigations.
The Commissioner also wants to facilitate measures such as online filing of complaints or electronic payment of court fees. He said that he wants as well to strengthen joint investigation teams and establish new secure communication channels between Eurojust and national authorities.
The Commissioner welcomed the fact that, as part of the national recovery plans, more than €1.6 billion will be spent on digitalising justice by 2026. “This is good, but we need to move up a gear”, he commented, as the exchange of information between administrations still relies too much on physical documents.
The digitalisation of such data, especially in relation to cross-border terrorism investigations, could considerably speed up the analysis of such data.
The Commission first proposed a regulation on the digitalisation of judicial cooperation and cross-border access to justice in civil and commercial matters, followed by a directive amending earlier texts on the digitisation of the judicial system. With this, it wants to strengthen the possibility for the parties concerned to communicate with the competent authorities electronically or to initiate legal proceedings against a party located in another Member State. It also wants to propose allowing the use of video-conferencing in cross-border civil, commercial and criminal cases.
The digital transfer of applications, documents and data between national authorities and courts is also covered by these texts, which are expected to save the EU €25 million per year.
On terrorism cases, the Commission proposes a directive to adapt the new communication rules to the European rules on personal data protection and a regulation on the exchange of information on terrorism cases.
“Currently, Member States transmit information on terrorism-related court cases to Eurojust through different, often unsecured channels, such as e-mails or CD-ROMs”, the Commission writes. “In addition, Eurojust’s IT system is outdated and cannot properly cross-check information”. The aim is therefore to consolidate secure digital communication channels between Eurojust and national authorities and to enable Eurojust to identify links between previous and ongoing cross-border terrorism cases and other serious cross-border crimes.
These measures will also improve Eurojust’s use of the European Judicial Counter-Terrorism Register.
The last proposal concerns the development of an online platform for Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) that may involve at least two Member States. Their exchanges “are too slow and too heavy. A dedicated IT platform would make it easier for JITs to share information and evidence and communicate securely with each other”.
Links to the proposals: https://bit.ly/3G7T6B4; https://bit.ly/3da8cK0; https://bit.ly/3G8W3BH (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)