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, 13-14 October 2014 1
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!
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, 13-14 October 2014 3
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, 13-14 October 2014 4
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, 13-14 October 2014 5
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, 13-14 October 2014 6
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, 13-14 October 2014 7
BACKUP Slides e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, 13-14 October 2014 8
VC-Questionnaires: Statistics Number of Category entries Topic Legal Organisational Psychological Technical Other Total Number Action 3 12 2 10 3 30 recommended Best practice 2 12 4 9 3 30 recommended Issue or problem 5 43 6 29 4 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 material or 2 14 1 3 20 document Total Number 15 109 19 66 16 225 e-justice and e-law Conference Rome, 13-14 October 2014 9
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, 13-14 October 2014 10
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, 13-14 October 2014 11