Call for proposals for action grants to support national or transnational e-Justice projects

Topic description

Scope:

Scope: This call for proposals aims to support the development of pan-European electronic solutions and services in the area of justice which have the potential to produce outputs of tangible added value.

N.B.
Project proposals concerning participation in:

- the e-Evidence Digital Exchange System;

- specific e-CODEX use cases;

- the interconnection of national insolvency registers pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/848; and

- the introduction of multilingual standard forms further to Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 (the “public documents” regulation)

are not eligible for funding under this call. Applications concerning the above-mentioned topics should be made under the upcoming Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Telecom 2019 e-Justice DSI call for proposals that will be published in the course of 2019. Taking this into consideration, interested parties should regularly consult the dedicated CEF Telecom page for up to date information.

Applicants should ensure that applications are submitted under the most appropriate call for proposals organised under the Justice Programme in 2019.

Priorities and activities to be co-financed

1. Priorities

The priorities of the call broadly follow the political objectives set as part of the various multiannual Council Action Plans that have been adopted to date on e-Justice. At the same time, the call aims to encourage the conception of new and innovative initiatives in the e-Justice domain.

In 2019, the objective is to support the European e-Justice Strategy and Action Plan for the 2019-2023 period^[1]. More specifically, it aims to support the implementation of e-Justice projects within the European e-Justice Portal and at national level, so long as they have a European dimension. Priority will also be given to projects aiming to join or enhance existing or ongoing e-Justice Portal projects.

Against this background, the topics for 2019 are set out below:

• Projects that support the implementation of the e-Justice Strategy 2019-2023 and its Action Plan. Applications concerning projects on the main list of the Council e-Justice Action Plan will have priority over other projects indicated in the Action Plan;
• Find a Lawyer (FAL);
• Find a Notary (FAN);
• Find a Bailiff (FAB);
• Implementation of the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI^[2]) in case law repositories and interconnection with the e-Justice Portal;
• Land Registers Interconnection (LRI);
• European Court Database;
• Other e-Justice portal projects related to development of the relevant EU policies, such as victims' rights, rights of suspects and accused in criminal proceedings, and projects which are in advanced stage of development or already live on the Portal at the moment when the call is published.

Project applications in other areas clearly linked to e-Justice are not excluded, but will be evaluated with a lower priority in terms of relevance to the call’s objectives. e-CODEX project proposals are also not excluded insofar as they do not concern joining existing cases in the scope of the planned Telecom 2019 e-Justice DSI call (European Order for Payment, European Small Claims Procedure and other use cases defined under the e-Justice Action Plan 2019-2023).

Transnational project proposals will receive a higher priority than national ones. National projects will be funded as long as they offer clear EU added value.

2. Description of the activities

Project activities under this call would in principle include:

• analytical, conceptual, design and elaboration work;
• IT software development,
• quality assurance including related auxiliary measures necessary for the establishment of new IT systems,
• expansion and adaptation of existing national and transnational solutions towards addressing the objectives of the call.

The requirements and the application of the eIDAS Regulation^[3], as well as the use of the CEF Digital Building Blocks^[4] should be taken into account if relevant.

Activities relating to project management, content preparation, editorial work, communication, promotion and dissemination are also eligible for funding.

Activities must take place in countries participating to the Justice Programme to be eligible for funding.

3. Expected results

• Improved participation with the aim of achieving full EU coverage concerning all voluntary e-Justice interconnection projects;
• Opportunities allowing Member States to engage in new pilot initiatives identified as part of the European e-Justice Action Plan (2019-2023) – for example pilot projects with respect to the use of Artificial Intelligence technology in the justice field;
• Improved awareness of on-going and future e-Justice activities.

[1]https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2018/12/06/eu-continues-developing-european-e-justice/#

[2]Relevant activities could also relate to the adoption of / migration to a possible next version of the ECLI standard (“ECLI 2.0”).

[3]Regulation (EU) 910/2014

[4]https://ec.europa.eu/cefdigital/wiki/display/CEFDIGITAL/CEF+Digital+Home