Lisbon, 02/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - In Lisbon on Monday 1 October, the EU27 justice ministers stated their intentions to continue the work under way towards an improved exchange of information and better use, at European level, of information and communication technologies in the field of justice. The Portuguese justice minister, Alberto Costa, said that he hoped to continue the project, which was started at the beginning of 2007 under the German presidency, by drawing up an “ inventory of best practice” used in the European justice sector, particularly by establishing a forum and an electronic legal portal. “How can technology help to develop a common space of justice and security?”, asked European Commissioner for Justice Franco Frattini, speaking to a group of journalists. In response to his own question, he stated that he was to present the communication on “e-justice” in mid-2008, before the end of the Slovenian presidency. On top of work already carried out on the inter-connection of police records, the European legal network for both civilian and commercial matters, and the Atlas legal network for civilian matters, the commissioner announced his intentions of launching a feasibility study very soon into the creation of new functions, within the framework of the European portal project. These functions include: - a secured communication network to allow the competent authorities of the member states to transmit documents quickly and securely (rogatory letter or other means); - a network between national registers of wills and successions. German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries, who was originally behind the “e-justice” project, stated that the Council, with its specialist working group, was working on the development of “standards”, with a view to making all of the national systems interoperable. From the start of the work on “e-justice”, the member states had categorically abandoned the idea of centralising data at European level. The idea is not to create new databases, but to improve those which already exist. “This is the path to follow in the future”, she stated. (bc)