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Informal Meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers

Prague, 15 – 16 January 2009

Agenda item: E-justice: Promoting and facilitating the use of
cross-border videoconferencing

INTRODUCTION

Videoconferencing is an efficient tool that has the potential to speed
up cross-border proceedings and reduce costs in both civil as well as
criminal matters. 

The agenda of cross-border videoconferencing has been a priority for
several preceding Presidencies that have set up a valuable basis for
future development by drafting the first versions of documents that
should promote and facilitate the use of videoconferencing.

The JHA Council confirmed in June 2008 that work should continue on
promoting and facilitating the use of video-conferencing technology for
communication in cross-border proceedings, in particular for the taking
of evidence and interpretation.

The discussions in the framework of the Working Party on e-Justice have
highlighted the advantages of cross-border videoconferencing and
identified certain challenges. 

 

The summary of the responses to the questionnaire circulated by the
Working Party on e-Justice shows that a vast majority of Member States
have videoconferencing facilities in place. Further examination and work
have shown that technical incompatibility would not be a major obstacle
for a more widespread use of cross-border videoconferencing within the
European area of justice.

ISSUES TO BE EXAMINED

The informal meeting of Ministers is invited to examine cross-border
videoconferencing and to focus its discussions on the following specific
topics:

(1) Videoconferencing – what does it have to offer to us?

In October 2007 the Council Working Party on Legal Data Processing
(e-Justice) sent a questionnaire on the issue of videoconferencing to
the delegations of the individual Member States. By April 2008, replies
to the questionnaire were received from most of the Member States.

The summary of replies shows that in cross-border proceedings
videoconferencing is most frequently used for the taking of evidence.
Videoconferencing has proven especially valuable in cases involving
vulnerable or intimidated witness hearings (e.g. testimonies of children
or other vulnerable witnesses via videoconferencing have contributed to
reducing court trauma) and expert hearings (e.g. forensic and medical
experts) via videoconferencing have ensured a more effective use of
resources. Furthermore, an added value of higher level of security is
achieved if videoconferencing equipment is used for hearings of
witnesses placed in custody.  Videoconferencing is also useful in case
of remote interpretation (especially for smaller and less common
languages). 

Taking into account the cost of videoconferencing equipment, it could be
emphasized that the technology can be put to additional uses to increase
cost-efficiency. Member States could have mobile units in place that can
easily be transported to be used temporarily in prisons, in hospitals,
for the training of judges and other locations. 

Videoconferencing is thus a useful tool to speed up and facilitate
cross-border proceedings in a cost-efficient manner.  

The Ministers are invited: 

to confirm the significance and added value of videoconferencing in
cross-border cases. 

to discuss whether in their country sufficient resources are available
to build up a network of videoconferencing facilities and to examine
whether it would be useful to have a specific financing tool for this
issue.

to discuss in which proceeding types and stages is the use of
videoconferencing the most suitable and which obstacles (legal or
technical) need to be overcome to make the use of videoconferencing more
widespread.

(2) Videoconferencing in the European e-Justice portal 

In order to raise awareness and promote the use of videoconferencing it
is essential that the videoconferencing functionality is added to the
European e-Justice portal in the first phase of its development, i.e. by
the end of 2009.

As indicated above, the Working Party on Legal Data Processing has
worked on several documents to facilitate cross-border
videoconferencing: a user-friendly booklet to raise the general
awareness, a draft manual for practitioners covering legal as well as
technical issues and a policy document to promote videoconferencing in
the long-term. The Czech Presidency believes it would be useful to
develop these documents further in the light of the discussions in order
to promote wider use of videoconferencing equipment in cross-border
judicial proceedings.

 

Besides the booklet and the manual the portal could also involve updated
information on all courts with videoconferencing equipment in the Member
States and, eventually, a booking system for arranging videoconferencing
between courts in the Member States. 

The Ministers are invited to suggest the best possible way of including
the videoconferencing functionality into the European e-Justice portal
by the end of 2009. 

During the Czech Presidency the received information will be used to
finalize preparatory work on promoting and facilitating the use of
videoconferencing. 

 Original answers of the Member States can be found in the Council
document JURINFO 19, 6709/1/08

 	doc. 7906/08 JURINFO 22;

 	doc. 7907/08 JURINFO 23;

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