On 6 December, the Council adopted the strategy and action plan on the development of e-Justice for the period 2019-2023. E-Justice is a policy through which access to justice is simplified and improved while cross-border legal procedures are digitalised. It covers a range of different areas of law, and is aimed at citizens, companies, legal practitioners and judicial authorities.

As the world becomes increasingly more digital, procedures carried out in a digitised manner and electronic communication between those involved in judicial proceedings have become an essential component in the efficient functioning in cross-border judicial proceedings. For fast, efficient, judicial processes, an effective e-Justice system which is continuously reviewed is essential.

So far, two European e-Justice Action Plans and an e-Justice Strategy 2014-2018, have driven action in the field of e-Justice. These set out the priorities for the upcoming years, and how they will be implemented.

During the period 2019-2023, the work on e-justice will be focused on 3 key objectives:

  • Improve access to information in the area of justice
  • Continue the digitalisation of judicial and extrajudicial proceedings to offer easier and faster access to the courts
  • Ensure the technical implementation and management of the national e-justice systems to facilitate interconnection and interoperability between member states’ systems

The e-Justice portal, which contains information pages, search tools and dynamic forms will be further developed and expanded during the next action plan. The strategy can be found here.

In June 2018, we wrote on the development e-Justice in the EU. Our previous articles can be found here.