European Parliament Report on the Proposal for a Regulation on e-CODEX System
On 15 October 2021, the two Rapporteurs of the European Parliament, Emil Radev and Nuno Melo (following a Joint committee procedure, i.e. Committee on Legal Affairs and Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs) released a Report on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a computerised system for communication in cross-border civil and criminal proceedings (e-CODEX system, already mentioned on the blog here and here), amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1726 eu-LISA (see the Regulation Proposal here).
The Explanatory Statement presenting the main reasons for the proposed amendments on the Regulation Proposal reads as follows:
Introduction
E-Justice is one of the cornerstones of the efficient functioning of judicial systems in the Member States and at the European level. It is an essential instrument to facilitate the access to justice and provide legal protection to European citizens and companies in the digital era. It is thus important that appropriate channels are developed to ensure that justice systems can efficiently cooperate in a digital way.
The Commission’s Communication on the digitalisation of justice, A toolbox of opportunities, of 2 December 2020, sets out a new approach to the digitalization of justice based on a comprehensive set of financial and IT legal instruments to be used by various actors in the judicial systems. The Commission also presented the “Proposal for a Regulation on a computerised system for communication in cross-border civil and criminal proceedings (e-CODEX system)”, the e-CODEX Regulation.
On 29 April 2021 it was announced that the file shall be dealt with jointly by two committees – the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE), and the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI). MEP Emil Radev (JURI) and MEP Nuno Melo (LIBE) were appointed rapporteurs for the referred Regulation. E-CODEX is a golden standard/key technological enabler for modernising, through digitalisation, the communication in the context of cross-border judicial proceedings. Since the start of the project in December 2010, e-CODEX has transformed from an ambitious project to an operational Digital Service Infrastructure (DSI) in the judicial domain. Currently, the focus lies on the transition of the e-CODEX project towards a long-term sustainable and secure solution for the maintenance of e-CODEX.
The Rapporteurs believe that this Regulation, as an instrument which is directly applicable in all Member States and binding in its entirety, will guarantee a uniform application of the rules on e-CODEX across the EU and their entry into force at the same time. They welcome the aim to offer legal certainty by avoiding divergent interpretations in the Member States, thus preventing legal fragmentation. By establishing the e-CODEX system, the adoption of the Regulation will contribute to the uptake of e-CODEX by more Member States for procedures in which the system is already used as well as for future ones. The E-CODEX project aims to improve the cross-border access of citizens and businesses to justice in European Union as well as to improve the interoperability between judicial authorities within the European Union. It is designed as a decentralized system based on a distributed architecture that enables connectivity between national systems.
The rapporteurs believe that the e-CODEX system should be seen as a preferred solution for the establishment of interoperable and secure decentralised communication networks between national IT systems in cross-border judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters. The Proposal aims to entrust the further development and maintenance of e-CODEX to the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA) as of July 2023.
- Scope
The scope of this Regulation is the electronic exchange of data in the context of cross-border judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters (Article 2). The e-CODEX system should be viewed as the preferred solution for an interoperable, secure and decentralised communication network between national IT systems in this field. The rapporteurs are of the opinion that Annex I, containing a list of instruments providing for judicial procedures subject to eCodex, should be deleted. The scope of the Regulation should instead be established by reference to the judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters (Article 2). This allows for avoiding any risk of leaving out of the scope judicial procedures for which it is appropriate to foresee the possibility to use e-Codex. Moreover, a simple reference to Article 81 and 82 TFEU would have not been sufficient as instruments predating the Lisbon Treaty would not have been covered. Finally, the Regulation should only deal with the use of e-Codex for procedures in civil and criminal matters. Other uses of e-Codex that may be established by future legislative acts should not be addressed by this Regulation as they would require adaptations that cannot be foreseen at present (Recital 11; Article 2).
- Definitions
The Commission proposal does not contain clear and concrete provisions regarding the operating conditions of access points. The rapporteurs further developed the terminology of e-Codex to give more clarity to the following expressions: “authorised e-Codex Access point”, “e-Codex correspondents” and “digital procedural standards” (Article 3).
- Allocation of responsibilities
It is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the e-CODEX system and the efficiency of its governance while ensuring the independence of the national judiciaries; therefore, an appropriate entity for the operational management of the system is to be designated. The proposal provides for the creation of an e-CODEX Advisory Group and a Programme Management Board for e-CODEX (Article 12). Safeguards have been introduced for the independence of the judiciary that shall never be negatively impacted on by the e-CODEX system (recitals 7 and 9; Article 12a new). For a sound and clear operation of the eCodex system, further amendments have been tabled to precisely delineate the roles of the Commission, the Member States and eu-Lisa (Recitals 5, 12, 15, 21; Articles 3(1)b, 3(1)ba new, 6(4)a new, 7, and 16a new).
- Optimisation of the e-CODEX system
The rapporteurs introduced, for the sake of efficiency of e-Codex, some specifications on the authorized access points and on the designation of correspondents by Member States (Article 3(1)b, Article 3(1)ba new and Article 7).
- Delegation of powers to COM
Since the scope of the eCodex Regulation should be limited to the judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, but given that in the future it could be appropriate to make other procedures subject to the eCodex system, the two Rapporteurs are of the view that a certain flexibility is needed when it comes to the scoping of the Regulation itself. This is why provisions on delegated acts have been introduced. These provisions allow for further expanding the operation of eCodex while fully preserving the prerogatives of the Parliament on the scoping of the Regulation (Article 5(3a) new and 16a new).
In the Commission Financial Statement, reference is made to the expansion of the eCodex system to other procedures via implementing acts (point 2.2.3). This would be neither desirable nor legally appropriate. However, since the Financial Statement cannot be amended by the co-legislators, the insertion of the provisions empowering the Commission to adopt delegated acts is sufficient to keep parliamentary scrutiny intact.
- Private entities operating the access points and data protection
Judicial authorities and public prosecutors in many Member States usually have recourse to the services of contractors. Therefore, providing for the involvement of private entities and limiting it to the functioning of the e-Codex system does not set a dangerous precedent. However, safeguards should be in place given the sensitivity of the administration of justice and of the data and information dealt with by judicial authorities. This is the reason why the two Rapporteurs have foreseen that private entities can operate the access points only if authorised by Member Stated and provided that they fully comply, like public authorities possibly charged with that same task, with existing legislation on data protection (Recital 15, 15a new, 17; Article 12a new).
- e-Justice Core Vocabulary
With a view to strongly and thoroughly encourage judicial cooperation and mutual trust, interoperability should be ensured not only as regards Information and Communication Technology, but also in relation to terminology. Otherwise, even the most efficient system of interconnection would not be sufficient to make judicial authorities, legal practitioners, citizens, businesses and stakeholders properly understand each other. It is in the light of this that the two rapporteurs have chosen to insert the reference to the e-Justice Core Vocabulary in the definition of the “digital procedural standard” (Article 3, paragraph 1, point ga, new).
Conclusion
The two rapporteurs find that the proposal put forward by the Commission goes in the right direction by putting the question of interoperability at the heart of the EU efforts to stimulate and enhance the judicial cooperation across the continent.The proposal itself can be considerably improved to find a delicate and vital balance between interoperability and judicial independence, efficiency and data protection, speed and fundamental rights, technology and the rule of law.
More information here.
