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

Topic description

Scope:

Priorities and activities to be co-financed

1. Priorities

The key priorities for 2020 under this call are to:

1. Contribute to achieving the goals of the European e-Justice Strategy^[1] and Action Plan 2019-2023^[2] by supporting the implementation of e-Justice projects at the European and national level, as far as they have a European dimension.

Proposals aiming to develop projects on the main list of the Council e-Justice Action Plan will have priority over other projects indicated in the Action Plan.

2. Support projects aiming at joining or enhancing existing or on-going e-Justice projects, in particular:

• Interconnection of national insolvency registers, in the context of Regulation (EU) 2015/848^[3];
• Integration of electronic multilingual standard forms into national e-government systems, in the context of Regulation (EU) 2016/1191^[4]. In this context, national implementations must use and comply with the common XML schemas (XSDs) developed by the Commission;
• The following e-CODEX use cases: European Small Claims Procedure, European Order for Payment and iSupport;
• The e-Evidence Digital Exchange System, set up following the Council conclusions on improving criminal justice in cyberspace from 9 June 2016^[5];
• Find a Lawyer (FAL);
• Find a Notary (FAN);
• Find a Bailiff (FAB);
• Implementation of the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI^[6]) in case law repositories and interconnection with the e-Justice Portal;
• Land Registers Interconnection (LRI);
• European Court Database.

3. Support the development of concrete use cases based on artificial intelligence and blockchain technology in the justice area.

Without prejudice to the priority areas set out above, other e-Justice project proposals related to supporting 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 e-Justice Portal at the moment when the call is published, will not be excluded.

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

N.B. Applicants should ensure that applications are submitted under the most appropriate call for proposals organised under the Justice Programme in 2020.

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 and related auxiliary measures necessary for the establishment of 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^[7] and the use of the CEF Digital Building Blocks^[8], as well as the results from the e-CODEX project and ISA² Core vocabularies, should be taken into account, as 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 the various e-Justice Portal interconnection projects;
• Opportunities allowing Member States to engage in new pilot initiatives identified as part of the European e-Justice Action Plan (2019-2023);
• Development of pilot initiatives with respect to the use of artificial intelligence technology in the justice field;
• Improved awareness of ongoing and future e-Justice activities.

^{[1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52019XG0313(01)&rid=7}

^{[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52019XG0313(02)&rid=6}

^{[3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32015R0848}

^{[4] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32016R1191}

^{[5] https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/24300/cyberspace-en.pdf}

^{[6] Relevant activities could also relate to the adoption of / migration to the new ECLI eXtended Language (“ECLI XL”) standard adopted in October 2019: https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9280-2019-REV-2/en/pdf}

^{[7] Regulation (EU) 910/2014}

^{[8] https://ec.europa.eu/cefdigital/wiki/display/CEFDIGITAL/CEF+Digital+Home}