The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the report drafted by Ona JUKNEVICIENE (ALDE, LT) and made amendments to the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Decision 2001/470/EC establishing a European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters.
The main amendments made by the committee (1st reading of the codecision procedure) are as follows:
Recitals: a certain number of amendments were made to the recitals. In particular on the following issues:
In the main body of the text, the following amendments have been made:
- Member States shall ensure that the contact point has sufficient and appropriate facilities in terms of staff, resources and modern means of communication to adequately fulfil its tasks as a contact point. They shall determine the professional associations and they shall obtain the agreement of the professional associations concerned on their participation in the Network. Where there is more than one association representing a legal profession in a Member State, it shall be the responsibility of that Member State to provide for appropriate representation of that profession on the Network;
- the establishment, maintenance and promotion of an information system for the public on judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters in the European Union, relevant Community and international instruments and the domestic law of the Member States, with particular reference to access to justice. The main source of information shall be the Network’s website containing up to date information in all official languages of the institutions of the Union;
- local judicial authorities should receive general information concerning the Community and international instruments relating to judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters. In particular, it shall ensure that the Network, including the website of the Network, is better known to the local judicial authorities;
- as regards professional associations, in order to contribute to the accomplishment of the tasks set out, the contact points shall have appropriate contacts with the professional associations, in accordance with rules to be determined by each Member State. In particular, the contacts may include the following activities: i) exchanges of experience and information as regards the effective and practical application of Community and international instruments; ii) collaboration in the preparation and updating of the information sheets; iii) participation in relevant meetings by professional associations. Professional associations shall not request information from contact points relating to individual cases. Each Member State shall ensure that the contact point(s) and competent authorities have the means to meet on a regular basis. It is suggested that the contact points of the Network shall meet at least once every six months;
- on the processing of requests for judicial cooperation, the amended text states that the contact points shall respond to all requests submitted to them without delay and at the latest within fifteen days of receipt thereof. If a contact point cannot reply to a request within fifteen days of receipt thereof, it shall inform the requester briefly of this fact, indicating how much time it considers it will need to reply but this period shall, as a rule, not exceed thirty days;
- the accession countries and candidate countries may be invited to attend these meetings as observers. Third countries that are party to international agreements on judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters concluded by the European Community may also be invited to attend certain Network meetings as observers;
- the Network shall maintain relations and share experiences and best practices with the other European networks that share its objectives, such as the European Judicial Network in criminal matters. The Network shall also maintain such relations with the European Judicial Training Network with a view to promoting, where appropriate and without prejudice to national practices, training sessions on judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters for the benefit of the local judicial authorities of the Member States;
- on the provision of general information to the public, the Network shall contribute towards providing the public with general information, using the most appropriate technological facilities to inform it about the content and application of Community or international instruments on judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters. To that end, the contact points shall promote the information system to the public;
- as regards the evaluation, no later than three years after the application of this Decision, and every three years thereafter, the Commission shall present to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee a report on the activities of the Network. This report shall be accompanied, if need be, by proposals for adaptations and shall include the Network’s activities to progress with the design, development and implementation of European e-Justice, particularly from the point of view of facilitating citizens’ access to justice.