The ‘Digital Cross-Border Cooperation in Criminal Justice’ Conference, which was held in Brussels on the 21-22 of January 2020, brought together 118 professionals from 68 different organizations from EU and beyond. 24 Member States, the Council of the European Union, INTERPOL, EUROPOL, EUROJUST, EJN, EJTN, EDPS, and other EU bodies, alongside civil society, academia, training and professional organizations, etc. were represented in the conference meeting room.
The first day provided for expert presentations and discussions on the up-to-date legal and policy issues in the field of digital cross-border cooperation, the most recent IT and infrastructure developments facilitating the legal instruments, the involvement of law enforcement agencies in the judicial cooperation chain, the the role of the private sector in the judicial cooperation data flow, as well as for detailed presentations of the three projects.
The second day continued the discussions in the field of digital cross-border judicial cooperation in criminal matters with the following sessions: evidence exchange and standards facilitating the cross-border investigations; the changes in the legal professions to reflect on the pressing legal and technology needs; EU best practices and lessons learnt on the adoption of the cross-border cooperation tools. The event closed with a series of short presentations on the action plans and steps forward undertaken by the project partners to rollout and continue their efforts in the field.
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The Conference was organized within the joint framework of
EVIDENCE2e-CODEX,
EXEC and e-Evidence Projects.
The e-Evidence Project led by the European Commission, DG Justice and Consumers, provides for the e-Evidence Digital Exchange System that manages the European Investigation Order/Mutual Legal Assistance procedures/instruments (e-Forms, business logic, statistics, log, etc.) on European level. The Reference Implementation Portal is the front-end portal of the e-Evidence Digital Exchange System and is also provided by the EC.
‘Electronic Xchange of e-Evidences’ (EXEC) Project extends and strengthens key components of the e-CODEX infrastructure for the fully electronic exchange of European Investigation Orders and related electronic evidences between Member States. Each participating Member State uses e-CODEX to set up an access point to interconnect with other Member States for exchanging electronic evidences. While e-CODEX operates at international level, on national level the respective national systems are in play along with the e-Evidence Digital Exchange System.
‘Linking EVIDENCE into e-CODEX for EIO and MLA procedures in Europe’ (EVIDENCE2e-CODEX) Project provides for the Evidence Exchange Standard Package Application, a web application for creating and/or preparing the evidence packaging and facilitating its exchange through the Reference Implementation Portal and over the e-CODEX infrastructure using a language standard for the representation of the information of the evidence package (data and meta data related to an evidence).
Venue
The conference will take place in European Commission Building Charlemagne, Rue de la Loi, 170, Brussels, Belgium.
Agenda
Tuesday, 21 January 2020
09:00 – 09:30 |
Registration & Welcome Coffee |
09:30 – 09:45 |
Opening by Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice (via video message) Keynote Address by Alain Pilette, Deputy Director Justice, DG JAI Justice and Home Affairs at Council of the European Union |
Making Cross-border Cooperation Easy: Best IT Practices |
|
09:45 – 11:00 |
Introductory Comments Dr Martin Schneider, Ministry of Constitutional Affairs, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice, Austria e-CODEX in a Nutshell Isabelle Biallaß, Dr Gereon Laumann, Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Frank Woud, e-CODEX Community & External Relations Management, Ministry of Justice and Security, the Netherlands Luc Ferrand, Senior Legal Advisor, European Bailiffs’ Foundation German-Dutch Pilot on Mutual Legal Assistance Guido Schreiner, Public Prosecutor, Public Prosecution Office Aachen, Germany Portuguese Example on How the Judiciary Reform Affected the Use of Technology in the Criminal Justice Cooperation Field Pedro Tavares, Digital Advisor, Ministry of Justice, Portugal Digitalisation of Cross-border Judicial Procedures Gösta Petri, Deputy Head of Unit, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission |
11:00 – 11:30 |
Coffee Break |
Law Enforcement Agencies’ Data Exchange Within and Outside the EU |
|
11:30 – 12:45 |
INTERPOL’s Global Communications System and Data Exchanges with the Private Sector John Barry, Assistant Director ICT Law, Office of Legal Affairs, INTERPOL General Secretariat SIRIUS EU Digital Evidence Situation Report Tomas Penna, Project Outreach Agent at the European Counter Terrorism Centre, Europol EIO Workflow between Austria and Germany Judicial Cooperation: Practical and Legislative Aspects Panel Discussion Moderated by John Barry |
12:45 – 13:45 |
Lunch |
Cross-Border Access to e-Evidence: Designing Rules for the EU |
|
13:45 – 14:45 |
Introductory Comments Prof Jeanne Mifsud Bonnici, University of Groningen, the Netherlands Panel Discussion Tania Schröter, Deputy Head of Procedural Criminal Law Unit - DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission Jorge Espina, Assistant to the National Member for Spain, Spanish Desk at Eurojust Sónia de Sousa Pereira, Data Protection Unit, Europol Moderated by Prof Jeanne Mifsud Bonnici |
Building up: Electronic Exchange of Evidence in European Investigation Order |
|
14:45 – 16:00 |
e-Evidence Digital Exchange System Cristian Nicolau, Head of Unit eJustice, IT and Document Management, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission Djamila Ben Miloud, Project Manager, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission EVIDENCE2e-CODEX: Linking EVIDENCE into e-CODEX for EIO and MLA procedures in Europe EXEC: Electronic Xchange of e-Evidences with e-CODEX |
16:00 – 16:30 |
Coffee Break |
Private Sector and e-Evidence |
|
16:30 - 17:30 |
Introductory Comments Dr Maria Angela Biasiotti, Researcher, Institute of Legal Informatics and Judicial Systems at the National Research Council, Italy Panel Discussion Dr Maximilian Schubert, Chairman, EuroISPA Jiri Novak, Chair IT Law Committee, Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe Dr Marco Stefan, Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies Prof Joseph Cannataci, University of Groningen, the Netherlands Moderated by Dr Maria Angela Biasiotti |
17:30 - 17:45 |
Closing Remarks for the Day Dr Maria Angela Biasiotti, Researcher, Institute of Legal Informatics and Judicial Systems at the National Research Council, Italy |
19:30 |
Welcome Drink & Social Dinner @ Park Side Brasserie, Avenue de la Joyeuse Entrée 24, 1000 Brussels |
Wednesday, 22 January 2020
09:00 – 09:30 | Registration for the day & Morning Coffee |
09:30 – 09:45 | Digital Cross-border Challenges: Summary of Day 1 Frank Woud, e-CODEX Community & External Relations Management, Ministry of Justice and Security, the Netherlands |
Digital Evidence Exchange: Improving Criminal Justice in EU Cyberspace | |
09:45 – 11:00 | Evidence Exchange under EIO/MLA: CASE Standard, Large File of Evidence, Evidence Packaging CASE Ontology: Status and Future Evidence Exchange Package Application for Facilitating the Evidence Package Exchange through the Reference Implementation and e-CODEX Q&A Session on Technical Aspects Moderated by Fabrizio Turchi |
11:00 – 11:30 | Coffee Break |
Criminal Justice in Cyberspace: Are the Legal Professions Ready? | |
11:30 – 12:30 | Introductory Comments Simone Cuomo, Senior Legal Advisor, Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe Panel Discussion Iain Mitchel QC, Chair Surveillance Working Group, Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe Yves Vandermeer, Chair, ECTEG - European Cybercrime Training and Education Group Ianina Lipara, Secretariat Coordinator, European Judicial Network Alina Secrieru, Project Manager - Criminal Law, European Judicial Training Network Moderated by Simone Cuomo |
12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch |
Lessons Learnt | |
13:30 – 14:45 | Introductory Comments Frank Woud, e-CODEX Community & External Relations Management, Ministry of Justice and Security, the Netherlands Sharing the Dutch Perspective Huub Moelker, Business Consultant, Judicial Information Service, the Netherlands e-CODEX Initiatives and Experiences in Italy Experiences of the Spanish Approach José Manuel Martínez, Project Team Leader of Technological Developments, ISDEFE, Spain The Croatian Experience Božidar Jančić, Head of IT Unit, Ministry of Justice, Croatia |
Way Forward and Action Plans | |
14:45 – 15:55 | Leading EIO into Maturity: EVIDENCE2e-CODEX Action Plan Prof Jeanne Mifsud Bonnici, University of Groningen, the Netherlands e-Evidence Digital Exchange System: National Project Plans Cristian Nicolau, Head of Unit eJustice, IT and Document Management, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission EXEC Roll Out Sandra Taal, Community Management e-CODEX, Ministry of Justice and Security, the Netherlands Beyond EXEC – What Next? Cross-border Digital Criminal Justice Project |
15:55 - 16:00 | Closing Remark Cristian Nicolau, Head of Unit eJustice, IT and Document Management, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission |
16:00 – 16:30 | Networking over Coffee |
Presentations
All presentations are provided as downloadble links in the agenda above.
Where such links are not indicated, the consent for distribution is not given or the speach has not been supported by a multimedia presentation.
Resources
- Conference Agenda (.pdf)
- pdf, 175 KB
- 'e' meets Justice - Online Publication by e-CODEX
- pdf, 1.4 MB
- e-CODEX Project in a Nutshell
- pdf, 589 KB
- EVIDENCE2e-CODEX Project in a Nutshell
- pdf, 803 KB
Photos