Videoconferencing. Findings and State-of-play. Informal Working Group on Cross-border Videoconferencing

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Peregrine Rose
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1 REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA FEDERAL MINISTRY OF JUSTICE Videoconferencing Findings and State-of-play Informal Working Group on Cross-border Videoconferencing Johann Kickinger c/o Federal Ministry of Justice, Austria e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, October

Videoconferencing Johann Kickinger c/o Federal Ministry of

2 Videoconferencing is useful and cost-efficient for many (national and cross-border) judicial use-cases Criminal: Avoid transport of prisoners Take witness testimony Hearing expert opinion Suspects and accused persons statement Some MS: defendants only in preliminary proceedings Civil (Taking of evidence): Hearing of witness Party Expert / Interpreter Simple to complex use-cases (at different security levels): Hearing of a single remote person (point-to-point VC) With (consecutive or simultaneous) interpretation Multi-point VC: e.g. coordination meeting fighting serious crime Main tribunal with true-to-live VC environment More complex But: Cross-border VC has to solve some more practical difficulties!

Interpreter Simple to complex use-cases (at different security levels): Hearing of a single remote person (point-to-point VC) With (consecutive or simultaneous) interpretation

3 Informal Working Group on Cross-border Videoconferencing Goal: Promoting the practical use of cross-border VC Expected results: Suggest specific (short-term) actions to improve the situation Suggest specific (funding) projects to improve Regular short status reports to the Council Working Party e-justice Final report (Dec. 2014) Time-line: 4 Meetings done: Goals, questionnaire and results, improvement actions, improvement projects: Legal / Technical / Organisational 20 Oct. 2014, 13:30 17:30: Next meeting in Brussels Structure of the Final Report Content, partners and time-line for funding project detailing content e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, October

2014) Time-line: 4 Meetings done: Goals, questionnaire and results, improvement actions, improvement projects: Legal / Technical / Organisational 20 Oct.

4 Questionnaires on VC Completed VC-questionnaires received from 17 Member States: AT, CY, CZ, DE(NRW), EE, ES, FR, HR, HU, IE, LV, MT, NL, PT, SE, SI, UK(England and Wales; Scotland) 1 Organisation: EUROJUST Other participants: General Secretariat of the Council, COM - DG Justice, European Court of Justice, Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), Europäische EDV-Akademie des Rechts (EEAR) Some MS are just interested in the results, e.g. Denmark e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, October

Council, COM - DG Justice, European Court of Justice, Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), Europäische

5 Findings: Typical problems with cross-border videoconferencing Majority of problems: Organisational or technical! Organising a videoconference, e.g.: Contact person in other MS cannot be found Contact person is unable to understand me language problem Wrong start-time because of different time-zones Organisational (Legal), e.g.: Formal process for mutual assistance to get permission for VC takes too long (can be months!) Technical problems - unable to start VC, e.g.: Wrong ISDN Number / wrong IP address / behind firewall / incompatible standards / insufficient bandwidth / parameters for optimizing quality of video and audio Suggestion of actions, e.g.: Improve finding the right contact-point / contact-person and ease the language problem (e.g. central contact point per MS) e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, October

g.: Improve finding the right contact-point / contact-person and ease the language problem (e.g. central contact point per MS) e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, 13-14 October 2014 5

6 Suggested content for project(s): Combine items 1 to 7 into one funding project 1.) Identify use cases with high benefit from cross-border VC (Goal: get the overall picture) 5.) Summarize recommended technical standards from practical perspective 2.) Practical technical tests of cross-border VC connections between pairs of MS 3.) Perfecting VC between a pair of MS 4.) Develop step-by-step protocol with instructions for doing certain use-cases and processes with cross-border VC 6.) Training and motivating potential VC users: e.g. via a series of demo VC-sessions 7.) Improve Form for requesting/confirming a VC (and public parameters to be published 8.) Implement electronic sending of forms for Direct Taking of Evidence via e-justice Portal and e-codex (Should be an e-codex project) e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, October

) Develop step-by-step protocol with instructions for doing certain use-cases and processes with cross-border VC 6.) Training and motivating potential VC users: e.g. via a series of demo VC-sessions 7.

7 Outcome from discussions on content items for project(s) Many thanks to MS and organisations providing active contributions or suggestions! Content items Nr. 1 to 7 shall be combined in one funding project They are closely interrelated (e.g. 2, 3, 4 and 5) or important for many MS (see table on previous slide) NL, UK, SE, IT, SI, EE, LV and AT want to join such a project. Other MS are still thinking (e.g. FR, DE, MT, HR) and will inform Also observer partners shall be possible Content item Nr. 8 should be done under the umbrella of the e-codex project (re-using e-codex transport) 20 Oct. 2014, 13:30 17:30: 5 th Meeting Informal Working Group on Cross-border Videoconferencing in Brussels e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, October

Other MS are still thinking (e.g. FR, DE, MT, HR) and will inform Also observer partners shall be possible Content item Nr.

8 BACKUP Slides e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, October

9 VC-Questionnaires: Statistics Number of Category entries Topic Legal Organisational Psychological Technical Other Total Number Action recommended Best practice recommended Issue or problem Other Project suggested Solution recommended Synergy with other project Useful material or document Total Number e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, October

87 Other 1 2 3 Project suggested 5 2 3 10 Solution 3 22 4 12 1 42 recommended Synergy with 1 2 3 other project Useful

10 DRAFT Structure of the Final Report Goals of the IWG; Alignment with e-justice Action Plan Existing situation: Results from the questionnaires (raw materials / reports as appendices?) Problems and Issues identified (probable sorted by category) Solutions and best practices identified/suggested for improvement Actions suggested and suggestions for specific projects to improve Possible synergies with other European e-justice projects Useful materials identified, which should be promoted for VC users Key problem areas identified Recommendations to improve cross-border VC Legal Specific short-time actions suggested Specific (funding) projects suggested Organisational Specific short-time actions suggested Specific (funding) projects suggested Technical Specific short-time actions suggested Specific (funding) projects suggested (Minimum) technical standards suggested e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, October

Possible synergies with other European e-justice projects Useful materials identified, which should be promoted for VC users Key problem areas identified Recommendations to improve cross-border VC

11 Videoconferencing in the European e-justice Action Plan Project 30. Videoconference - Organising and running crossborder videoconferences (in all MS) Responsibility for action - Member States and the Commission Actions to be taken - Informal group Timetable 2014 to 2016 Category A - IT tools helping to support and organise videoconferences - enhancing interoperability for videoconferencing - form for requesting/ confirming a cross-border videoconference - Network for exchange of experience and sharing best practice on videoconferencing, including training (participation of legal practitioners: judges, public prosecutors, lawyers, mediators, legal interpreters) e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, October

Timetable 2014 to 2016 Category A - IT tools helping to support and organise videoconferences - enhancing interoperability for videoconferencing - form for requesting/ confirming a

Council of the European Union Brussels, 29 May 2015 (OR. en)

Council of the European Union Brussels, 29 May 2015 (OR. en) 9206/15 "I/A" ITEM NOTE From: To: General Secretariat of the Council EJUSTICE 60 JUSTCIV 128 COPEN 139 JAI 352 Permanent Representatives Committee