Report from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee on the application of Council Decision 2001/470/EC establishing a European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters {SEC(2006) 579}
Date: 2006-05-16
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: civil law, commercial law, exchange of information, information network, information system, judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU, report

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 16.5.2006 
COM(2006) 203 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT AND THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 

on the application of Council Decision 2001/470/EC establishing a European Judicial 
Network in civil and commercial matters 

{SEC(2006) 579} 

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1. 

BACKGROUND 

This  Commission  report  is  established  in  accordance  with  Article  19  of  Council  Decision 
No 2001/470/EC of 28 May 2001 (“the Decision”) establishing a European Judicial Network 
in civil and commercial matters1 (“the Network”). A study commissioned by the Commission 
on  the  operation  of  the  Network  can  be  consulted  on  the  Internet2
  Data  on  its  operation  is 
given in an annex to this report. 

The December 1998 Vienna action plan3 called for the establishment of a judicial network in 
civil  matters  on  the  model  of  the  criminal  network,  while  the  1999  Tampere  European 
Council called on the Commission to establish “an easily accessible information system to be 
maintained and up-dated by a network of competent national authorities”.  

The  Commission  decided  to  merge  these  two  mandates  in  a  single  initiative.  The  Council 
Decision  establishing  a  European  Judicial  Network,  adopted  less  than  a  year  after  the 
Commission presented its proposal, came into force on 1 December 2002. 

2. 

CHARACTERISTICS AND OPERATION OF THE NETWORK 

2.1. 

The Network’s contact points  

In October 2005 the network comprised 424 members in four categories:  

a) the contact points (93 members); 

b) the central authorities provided for in Community instruments and international agreements 
(159 members); 

c) the liaison magistrates (13 members); 

d)  other  judicial  or  administrative  authorities  with  responsibilities  for  judicial  cooperation 
(159 members). 

Particulars of the contact points were distributed in each Member State in 2003 and 2005 by 
means of information leaflets published by the Commission. But the efficiency with which the 
information was distributed to the courts varied widely from one Member State to another. 

The Decision only requires the Member States to designate one contact point. But it is open to 
them to designate several, though only in limited numbers.  

93  contact  points  were  designated  for  24  Member  States,  giving  an  average  of  3.8  each. 
Member States designated between 2 and 5 contact points, though one Member State (Greece) 
designated 9 and another (Germany) 17. Where there are several contact points, it is up to the 
Member State to ensure coordination among them.  

1 
2 
3 

OJ L 174, 27.6.2001, p. 25. 
http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/doc_centre/civil/doc_civil_intro_en.htm 
OJ C 19, 23.1.1999, p. 1. 

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All  contact  points  have  modern  communications  facilities,  but  enjoy  rarely  a  sufficient 
complement of supporting staff. In addition, only a few are linked by intranet to the judicial 
system or have managed to set up pages for the Network on a national website. For various 
reasons, often related to the organisation of the administration of justice, the contact points do 
not always have the possibility of communicating direct with the judges. 

Less than ten Member States have established national sub-networks by designating members 
of the network under Article 2(1)(d). The Commission has observed that the dissemination of 
information  to  the  courts  and  the  association  of  the  local  judiciary  with  the  Network’s 
activities are more efficient in Member States which have such national networks. 

Certain  contact  points  combine  their  functions  either  with  those  of  the  central  authorities 
referred to above (at least 8 out of 24), or with other functions in the central administration of 
justice,  which  means  that  they  also  represent  their  Member  State  in  negotiations  in  Council 
working  parties.  Certain  contact  points  are  thus  only  partially,  very  partially  even  in  some 
cases, at the disposal of the Network. In addition, they have uneven access to the assistance 
they needed from other relevant government departments.  

The  Commission’s  evaluation  of  the  operation  of  the  Network,  with  which  members  were 
extensively  associated,  revealed  that  the  Network’s  effectiveness  in  performing  its  tasks 
depended  very  much  on  the  contact  points’  limited  capacity  for  action,  which  needs  to  be 
increased. 

2.2.  Meetings of the Network 

The Commission organises, chairs and services meetings.  

To enable the Network to become operational when the Council Decision came into force on 
2  December  2002,  the  Commission  organised  three  preparatory  meetings  in  2002.  The 
Network was thus able to hold its inaugural meeting on 4 December 2002.  

The Decision requires the contact points to meet at least once every six months. There were 
four meetings each in 2003 and 2004 and five in 2005. The contact points met fourteen times 
between 11 February 2003 and 15 November 2005. 

The  rate  of  attendance  at  meetings  of  contact  points  was  average  -  two  delegates  out  of  a 
possible four at the eight meetings held between June 2004 and September 2005.  

The first annual meeting, open to all members, was organised in December 2002 and partly 
devoted  to  setting  up  the  Network.  The  second  annual  meeting,  held  on  15 and 
16 January 2004,  was  devoted  to  a  first  assessment  of  a  year’s  cooperation  in  the  Network. 
The third annual meeting was held for the first time in a Member State, in Madrid on 13 and 
14 December 2004, at the invitation of the General Council of the Spanish judicial authority. 
This  meeting  provide  a  fresh  opportunity  for  a  round-table  discussion  on  improving  the 
operation of the Network.  

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On the initiative of the Commission, and in line with the ideas raised at the round table, the 
Network drew up Guidelines for the operation of the European Judicial Network in civil and 
commercial  matters  in  2004,  calling  on  the  Member  States  to  provide  it  with  adequate 
resources to discharge its tasks effectively. The UK Presidency, acting on a request from the 
Commission reflecting the wish expressed by members, organised a discussion on the role of 
the Network in the service of the general public at the informal meeting of Justice Ministers in 
Newcastle in September 2005. 

2.3. 

Communications within the Network 

The  Network  has  a  confidential  system  for  information  exchanges  between  members,  a 
“Circa” intranet managed by the Commission. 

It  was  decided  that  the  contact  points  should  notify  the  Commission  of  data  on  these 
exchanges in matters of judicial cooperation. For 2003 and 2004, the Commission registered 
363 requests for judicial cooperation addressed to the Member States’ Network contact points, 
involving  7  requested  countries  and  15  requesting  countries,  though  most  cases  concerned 
only 3 or 4 (70% of cases concerned only 2 countries). These figures show that the volume of 
information exchanges via the Network still remains fairly low. 

In June 2005 the Commission made a more user-friendly computer tool, the on-line database 
“Register”,  available  to  contact  points.  But  by  1  November  2005  only  eight  Member  States 
were using the register and only 115 new cases had been entered. 

2.4. 

The Network’s website 

The Decision also tasks the Network with promoting information on justice, in particular in 
order  to  gradually  set  up  and  update  an  information  system  intended  for  both  the  general 
public and the specialists. The ground for the website had been prepared before the Decision 
came into force, which meant that it was able to go on-line from March 2003. 

The  Commission  manages  this  website,  which  it  hosts  on  its  Europa  site  at  the  following 
address: 

http://europa.eu.int/civiljustice 

For the 18 legal topics on the site, it has prepared the general information,  Community law 
and  international  law  pages  and  the  general  structure  of  the  national  pages.  Meetings  of 
contact points  in 2003  and 2004 were  largely devoted to discussions on  the structure of the 
national law pages, subsequently written by the Member States using the common model.  

The site contains a link to another computer tool developed by the Commission to supplement 
it,  the  European  Judicial  Atlas,  which  allows  easy  access  to  the  details  of  the  courts  and 
authorities responsible for implementing a variety of Community instruments (transmission of 
judicial documents, obtaining evidence abroad, legal aid, etc.) in the Member States. It also 
contains  the  various  forms  provided  for  by  Community  instruments,  which  can  be  filled  in 
and transmitted on-line. 

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With  assistance  from  the  Network,  the  Commission  has  developed  tools  to  promote  the 
website. In 2003 more than 500 000 copies of a booklet targeted at the general public entitled 
“Civil law at your fingertips” were distributed in the Union. A multilingual poster indicating 
the address of the Network’s website (3865 copies) was displayed in public places in all the 
Member  States  in  2003.  This  material  was  translated  and  distributed  in  the  new 
Member States. As part of the European Day of Civil Justice established by the Commission 
and  the  Council  of  Europe,  the  Network  has  contributed  actively  since  October  2003  to 
information  and  awareness-raising  campaigns  on  the  operation  of  civil  justice  in  the 
Member States. 

3. 

THE NETWORK’S OBJECTIVES  

The Decision on the Network pursues three fundamental objectives: 

- improving and facilitating judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters between the 
Member States in all fields; 

-  improving  the  effective  and  practical  application  of  Community  instruments  and 
conventions in force between two or more Member States; 

- promoting effective access to justice for the general public. 

3.1. 

Improving judicial cooperation 

to 

The  Commission  concludes  from  the  information  available  to  it  that  implementation  of  the 
Decision  has  helped 
the 
Member States in general. The Network has facilitated judicial cooperation between courts in 
the Union and cut the time taken to process requests via its system of direct relations between 
contact  points.  In  addition,  it  has  had  a  significant  impact  on  the  settlement  of  unresolved 
requests for mutual judicial assistance. 

judicial  cooperation  between 

improve  and  accelerate 

In  addition,  given  the  ongoing  harmonisation  of  the  conflict-of-laws  rules  in  the  Union,  the 
Network can be expected to play an essential role in helping the courts of the Member States 
when they apply the law of another Member State. 

Even  so,  the  evaluation  of  the  operation  of  the  Network  has  revealed  shortcomings, 
particularly  in  terms  of  the  resources  available  to  the  contact  points.  It  is  clear  that  the 
Network’s effectiveness in working for its objectives is heavily dependent on the still limited 
capacity for action of its contact points and that this capacity must be increased. 

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3.2. 

The Community instruments in practice 

One  of  the  Network’s  essential  tasks  is  to  encourage  the  proper  application  of  Community 
instruments. At the Network’s three annual meetings, debates in the presence of experts and 
practitioners on an annual discussion topic covered initial experience with application of the 
Regulation  on  the  transmission  of  judicial  and  non-judicial  document4,  the  coordination  of 
insolvency procedures in the European Union5 and implementation of the Regulation on the 
taking of evidence in the Member States6. 

In addition, meetings of contact points were devoted to discussing and finalising two practical 
guides drawn up by the Commission with the aid of independent experts for judges and other 
practitioners  of  Union  law.  These  guides  concern  the  new  “Brussels  II”  Regulation 
concerning  parental  responsibility7  and  the  Regulation  on  the  taking  of  evidence  referred  to 
above  and  are  available  on-line  on  the  Network’s  website  (the  first  was  also  published  in 
booklet form). 

To  improve  judicial  cooperation  and  the  effective  application  of  Community  instruments,  it 
will be necessary in future for more information to flow from the courts to the Network on the 
difficulties  of  implementation  encountered  in  practical  cases  and  to  focus  the  work  of  the 
Network,  in  particular  the  contact  point  meetings,  on  analysing  these  practical  cases  to 
identify best practices. 

The  Network  should  therefore  be  used  as  a  permanent  discussion  forum  on  the  practical 
implementation of the acquis communautaire as regards civil justice. The Network’s role in 
the dissemination of information in the courts is indeed crucial, but it is also crucial to ensure 
that information on difficulties met in dealing with practical cases flows from the courts to the 
contact points. The situation is still far from satisfactory in these fields. 

3.3. 

Facilitating information on civil justice 

One of the objectives set for the Network was to prepare and update information on judicial 
cooperation in civil and commercial matters and the legal systems of the Member States in an 
accessible web-based information system. 

The  Network’s  website  was  put  on-line  in  March  2003  and  already  offers  the  public  more 
than  2000  pages  on  18  topics  affecting  the  daily  life  of  citizens  and  companies  for 
consultation  in  20  Community  languages.  Between  July  and  November  2005  there  was  a 
monthly average of 100 000 hits, which is an undeniable success story. 

The  EIA  (European  Information  Association  at  http://www.eia.org.uk)  gave  the  Network’s 
site its Award for Excellence in European Information Sources (electronic sources category) 
in 2003. 

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7 

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1348/2000  on  the  service  in  the  Member  States  of  judicial  and 
extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters (OJ L 160, 30.6.2000, p. 37). 
Council Regulation (EC) No 1346/2000 of 29 May 2000 on insolvency proceedings. 
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1206/2001  of  28  May  2001  on  cooperation  between  the  courts  of  the 
Member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters. 
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  2201/2003  of  27  November  2003  concerning  jurisdiction  and  the 
recognition  and  enforcement  of  judgments  in  matrimonial  matters  and  the  matters  of  parental 
responsibility,  repealing  Regulation  (EC)  No  1347/2000;  the  practical  guide  can  be  consulted  at: 
http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/ejn/parental_resp/parental_resp_ec_vdm_en_rev.pdf 

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The site as opened to the public was judged to be easy to access, user-friendly and a source of 
legal  information  that  would  otherwise  have  been  very  difficult  to  obtain.  Users  have 
described the information provided as being of high quality, useful, relatively complete and 
up to date. 

However,  many  contact  points  had  difficulties  providing  the  national  topic  pages  on  time, 
which  delayed  their  on-line  release.  To  date,  the  Commission  has  still  not  received  the 
national topic sheets in their entirety. Nor was the Commission able to quickly translate all the 
pages into all the Union’s 20 official languages. 

4. 

SPECIFIC ISSUES PROVIDED FOR BY ARTICLE 19 OF THE DECISION 

4.1. 

Direct public access to the Network 

Members of the Network generally consider that it is too early to envisage direct public access 
to the contact points until the resources made available to them by the Member States have 
been significantly expanded. 

But  some  contact  points  already  answer  certain  requests  from  the  public.  There  should 
gradually be a degree of opening up to the public so as to give citizens better access to justice. 

Thought  should  be  given  to  how  to  provide  direct  public  access  to  the  contact  points  by 
on-line  communication  facilities,  taking  inspiration  for  example  from  the  best  practices  in 
dispute settlement in the internal market (SOLVIT network8). 

4.2. 

Access to the Network for the legal professions  

The Decision provides for the contact points to be directly accessible only for the judicial and 
administrative  authorities  of  the  Member  States.  The  question  of  possible  direct  access  for 
other  legal  actors  and  of  associating  the  legal  professions  in  its  work  was  discussed  by  the 
contact points in detail in 2005. 

Concerns have been expressed about the negative impact that opening the Network up could 
have on the contact points’ limited resources and on ethical issues raised by the fees received 
by  lawyers  in  private  practice  from  their  clients  after  they  have  used  the  free  information 
available  from  the  contact  points.  On  the  other  hand,  there  have  been  calls  to  develop  the 
supply  of  information  to  these  professions  on  the  existence  of  and  possible  action  by  the 
Network, to develop information exchanges (joint conference, invitation to annual meeting of 
the Network, etc.), and to promote the use of the Network’s website by legal practitioners. 

8 

SOLVIT  is  an  on-line  problem-solving  network  set  up  by  the  Commission  covering  instances  where 
internal market legislation is not properly applied by the authorities. There is a SOLVIT centre in each 
Member  State  which  is  committed  to  providing  solutions  to  these  concrete  problems  free  of  charge 
within ten weeks (http://europa.eu.int/solvit/site/index.htm). 

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Members of the Network, on the other hand, were more in favour of opening up to the legal 
professions,  for  example  by  giving  their  representative  bodies  direct  access  to  the  contact 
points. The Commission notes that certain contact points already respond to their requests for 
information, while one Member State (Czech Republic) has even designated a national bar as 
a member of the network under Article 2(1)(d) of the Decision. Certain Member States have 
also  designated  as  central  authorities  (and  therefore  members  of  the  Network),  within  the 
framework of certain instruments, the national Chambers of Bailiffs or Councils of Notaries. 

As  the  conduct  of  civil  actions  is  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  parties,  the  various  legal 
professions  are  effectively  the  essential  actors  of  judicial  cooperation  in  civil  matters  in 
Europe;  this  will  increasingly  be  the  case  following  the  foreseeable  adoption  of  new 
Community  instruments,  such  as  the  European  Payment  Order  Regulation  and  the  Small 
Claims Regulation. 

The Commission therefore considers that a gradual opening-up to the legal professions would 
be  a  vital  asset  for  the  Network  in  the  attainment  of  its  objectives  in  the  European 
judicial-enforcement  area.  Thought  should  also  be  given  to  possible  co-financing  of  the 
Network’s activities by the legal professions. 

4.3. 

Synergy with the European Consumer Centres Network (“ECC-Net”) 

Article  19  of  the  Decision  requires  the  report  to  consider  the  question  of  synergy  with  the 
European  Extrajudicial  Network  for  the  settlement  of  consumer  disputes  (EEJ-NET).  An 
ECC-Net (“European Consumer Centres”) was set up at the beginning of 2005 following the 
assistance  merger  of  the  old  “European  Information  Centres”,  which  provided  information 
and assistance in the event of cross-border consumer disputes, and the European Extrajudicial 
Network (EEJ- NET). EEJ-NET was directly accessible to the public, and set out to help settle 
consumer  complaints  in  practical  matters  out  of  court  and  provide  access  to  the  existing 
extrajudicial  dispute-settlement  systems  in  the  other  Member  States.  The  purpose  of 
establishing  the  ECC-Net  network  is  to  simplify  the  situation  and  make  it  possible  for 
consumers  to  obtain  information  and  assistance  direct  from  a  single  contact  point  in  each 
Member State9

. 

In  2004  contacts  between  the  network  and  the  old  EEJ-NET  network  proceeded  both  at 
Community level and in the Member States on the initiative of certain contact points. 

It  should  be  possible  to  make  better  use  of  synergy  between  the  two  networks  so  that,  for 
example, a dispute which could not be settled in ECC-Net could, if the consumer so wished, 
benefit from practical legal assistance from the judicial network in order to facilitate referral 
to a court as part of the future European small claims procedure. 

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A full description of the activities of the ECC-Net network and the list of its contact points is available 
at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/redress/ecc_network/index_en.htm. 

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4.4. 

Relations between the various members of the Network 

length 

the  question  of  relations  between 

In  addition,  the  Commission  notes  that  the  synergies  between  the  various  members  of  the 
network in each Member States have been felt to be rather weak. The Network has discussed 
its  various  components,  and  several 
at 
recommendations have been made with a view to developing genuine synergies between the 
central authorities themselves, between them and the contact points, and between the contact 
points and the local courts. The Network recommended in particular that a main contact point 
be identified in each Member State for the exchange of information within the Network and 
that, if a judge was not designated as a contact point, then a representative of the judiciary be 
designated as a first contact point for the national contact point. 

It  has  turned  out  that  several  Member  States  have  designated  a  central  authority  as  contact 
point. The main reasons given in support of such multi-tasking are the need to economise on 
resources and, in certain cases, the relative infrequency of requests for judicial cooperation. If 
the  functions  of  Network  contact  point  and  central  authority  are  combined  within  the 
Member States, there can be problems. It is recommended that the respective roles of contact 
points and central authorities, as defined in Articles 5 and 6 of the Decision, be clarified and 
good working relationships between them be established. 

The  contact  points  also  wished  to  develop  information  on  the  Network’s  activities  in  the 
Member States. 

As a privileged forum for meetings and experience-sharing between its members, the Network 
contributes naturally to increasing mutual confidence between courts in Europe. Moreover, it 
is at the heart of the Community machinery to facilitate judicial cooperation in civil matters 
and  must  accordingly  establish  relationships  with  other  European  networks  of  judicial 
organisations or judges working for the same aims, such as the European Network of Councils 
for  the  Judiciary,  the  European  Network  of  Supreme  Judicial  Courts  and  the  European 
Judicial Training Network. 

5. 

CONCLUSION 

The Commission considers that by and large the Network has attained the objectives assigned 
to  it  but  notes  that  it  is  still  far  from  having  developed  its  full  potential.  To  this  end,  it  is 
essential that it be given the necessary means to perform its tasks, which are found to expand 
in the years to come. The Commission stresses the importance of the Network as an essential 
tool for establishing a genuine European judicial-enforcement area. 

The Commission would accordingly like: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

all the main contact points in the Member States to be able to devote their time entirely 
to  the  network  and  Member  States  to  give  them  the  requisite  prerogatives  and 
resources; 

when the main contact point designated is not a judge, a judge always to be designated 
as supporting contact; 

all contact points to have access to an intranet with the national courts, have specific 
pages  on  the  national  Ministry  of  Justice  website and be able to communicate direct 
with any local court; 

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(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

local  contact  point  correspondents  to  be  established  in  the  courts  in  each 
Member State; 

greater  efforts  to  be  made  to  complete  the  development  of  the  Network’s  website  in 
terms of content and languages; 

information  campaigns  to  be  conducted  in  each  Member State  on  the  Network’s 
activities and the instruments of judicial cooperation, designed for the national courts; 

the  Network  to  continue  producing  practical  guides  and  developing  information 
campaigns  but  also  to  do  more  to  focus  on  discussing  practical  cases  and 
disseminating the resultant good practices; 

(8) 

on-line discussion groups to be created within the Network; 

(9) 

(10) 

(11) 

(12) 

(13) 

(14) 

(15) 

contact  points  gradually  to  become  accessible  to  the  public,  using  on-line 
communication techniques; 

the  Network  to  be  gradually  opened  up  to  other  legal  practitioners  involved  in  the 
operation  of  justice;  for  example,  a  representative  of  the  various  legal  professions 
concerned in each Member State should be able to join the Network or at least have 
access to the contact point; 

in the context of the previous recommendation, a partnership to be developed with the 
legal professions to share the extra work generated for the Network by opening up in 
this way; 

cooperation  between  the  Judicial  Network  and  ECC-Net  to  be  developed  to  settle 
specific disputes; 

the functions of Network contact point and central authority to be clearly differentiated 
in the Member States or measures to be taken to ensure that contact points can fully 
perform their functions; 

the  Member  States’  central  authorities  to  maintain  regular  liaison  with  the  contact 
points, by arranging a minimum number of meetings each year; 

the Network to maintain relations with other European networks of judicial institutions 
and judges with a view to improving mutual confidence. 

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The  Commission  is  planning  to  report  on  the  activities  of  the  Network  every  two  years 
from 2006. 

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