Pilot A Project: the UIHJ at the European Commission on 12 March 2010
A UIHJ delegation led by its president Leo Netten visited on 12 March 2010 the European Commission in Brussels to attend a meeting with Jean-François Junger, Head of Sector, DG Information Society and Media Project, on the Pilot A project
Françoise Andrieux, Secretary General of UIHJ also attended the meeting, along with Alain Bobant, president of the Law, Electronic and Communication Association (Adec) and of the National Federation of Trusted Third Parties (FNTC). The European Commission was also represented by Mrs Lahti.
President Netten said the establishment of the e-Justice network for judicial officers, aims at the circulation of information and documents in general, specifically electronically. He presented the UIHJ and described its position and presence within the European institutions (Justice Forum, Cepej ...). Jean Francois Junger then presented the initial Pilot A project. The purpose of this project is, firstly, to work in a consortium with six pilot states on and by electronic exchange of information. The Ministries of Justice of these states must be parties to the project. It is a strategic choice for these countries because only they can change the law if necessary to implement the project. In addition to ministries, NGOs and other organizations can join the project. The consortium's budget is 14 million. The consortium will decide on ways of developing the project.
The objective of the pilot project is to develop technical solutions for connecting the judicial systems of different countries. All systems will remain independent at domestic level but will connect to an "interoperability layer" which will translate or convert data to facilitate circulation between States. Obviously, the project is based on countries that already have the proper infrastructure. The project duration is three years. It will develop applications for the countries of the consortium. Currently Germany has already established itself through the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Land North Rhine-Westphalia. The pilots will be asked to create a reference group to improve the final SPECS (specific products) so that the solutions are ultimately adopted by the twenty-seven member states. A second group will be created, but without the feedback part with the pilots. It will be an industrial group for establishing technically and practically generic solutions. The call for proposals is launched and will close in June.
There are currently four existing Pilot A, in particular the Pan-European Public Procurement On Line (PEPPOL) regarding e-Procurement. It concerns the transportation of electronic documents with an electronic signature system that will be reused on other projects.
Alain Bobant raised the question of the recognition of certificates on electronic signature.
Mr Junger said that a list of certified authorities has been created and that the PEPPOL project is currently working on this recognition of signatures.
Leo Netten presented the ADEC / SNG project. Through the example of Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 of 13 November 2007 on the service of documents, he explained the need for a certifying authority to avoid blocking the flow of electronic documents because of the electronic signature.
