On 31 March 2022, the 21st Tool Correspondents meeting of the European Judicial Network (EJN), under the French Presidency of the EJN, took place in The Hague, preceded by an on-the-spot training for newly appointed Tool Correspondents on 30 March 2022.
Due to the ongoing major reform and redesign of the EJN website, the EJN Secretariat presented the roadmap of the projects planned for implementation in 2022 and 2023 and related IT security requirements.
Moreover, the Tool Correspondents were introduced to some upcoming developments:
• the Reporting tool aimed at providing the EJN Contact Points with a more user-friendly way of reporting on their activities;
• the EJN Secure Connection (EJNSC);
• the integration of the non-EU countries and judicial networks sections into the redesigned EJN website.
Furthermore, the EJN Secretariat showed the functionality of the new platforms that had been created for updating the two main e-tools of the EJN website – Atlas and Fiches Belges.
The Tool Correspondents play a crucial role in updating the information regarding the national system of their Member States in these tools, therefore, to ensure a smooth and trouble-free workflow it was important that the Tool Correspondents had an opportunity to test the platforms themselves, to see how they work technically in practice, to ask questions and receive practical guidance.
During a tour de table, the Tool Correspondents reported about the current updates of the website that they had made before the meeting, including updates of the Contact Points list and Status of Implementation of the instruments for judicial cooperation, and shared their opinion on developments that are needed to the Atlas and Fiches Belges in the future.
At the practical session the participants had the opportunity to further update EJN website, with the assistance of the web-team and the EJN Secretariat.
Background
The European Judicial Network (EJN) is a network of national contact points. The role of the network is to improve, facilitate and speed up international judicial cooperation in criminal matters and ensure the proper execution of mutual legal assistance and mutual recognition requests, as well as to assist in establishing direct contacts between competent judicial authorities.
The role of the EJN Tool Correspondents is to ensure that all information on the EJN website related to their Member State is provided and updated in accordance with the EJN Decision (Council Decision 2008/976/JHA, Article 4.5). Moreover, Article 6.2 of the EJN Decision stipulates that the Tool Correspondents shall meet on an ad hoc basis, at least once a year.