Slovenian Justice Minister Marjan Dikaučič admitted, on Friday 10 December, that negotiations between the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament on the cross-border exchange of electronic evidence remain “deadlocked”.
The proposed e-Evidence Regulation aims to give judicial authorities in one Member State access to electronic evidence held by any service provider established in another Member State. The main issue in the interinstitutional negotiations is the division of competences between the State where a data production order is issued and the State where the organisation responsible for enforcing the order is located (see EUROPE 12778/2). In particular, in what circumstances should a notification be sent to the country of enforcement?
According to Mr Dikaučič, the deadlock is due to differences between co-legislating institutions on reporting systems. He reported on contacts made with MEPs and the upcoming French Presidency of the EU Council to try to unblock this file.
“There are more and more crimes that require access to electronic evidence”, noted the EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders. According to him, the EU Council has already taken a step towards the Parliament on the issue of the notification of an injunction and the conditions for refusing an injunction. The important thing is to “keep the increased efficiency of the system as contained in the original proposal, he stressed. He called on both the European Parliament and the Member States to change their position and try to find a compromise.
See the Slovenian progress report on the ‘e-Evidence’ Regulation: https://bit.ly/3pEJyXT
As the digitalisation of justice was, according to Mr Dikaučič, “the main course” of the ministerial meeting, the ministers were informed about the specific package recently presented by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12844/12).
The provisional European Parliament/EU Council interinstitutional agreement on the transfer, by the end of 2023 at the latest, of the management of the e-CODEX IT system to the headquarters of theEU Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems (eu-LISA) in Tallinn was also welcomed (EUROPE 12850/7). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)