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1. Four years from the date of entry into force of the implementing acts referred to in Article 10(3)(d) and every five years thereafter, the Commission shall carry out an evaluation of this Regulation and submit to the European Parliament and to the Council a report supported by information supplied by the Member States to the Commission and information collected by it. The Commission shall also include an assessment of the effect of electronic communication on the equality of arms in the context of cross-border civil and criminal proceedings. The Commission shall, in particular, assess the application of Article 5. On the basis of that assessment, the Commission shall submit, if appropriate, a legislative proposal obliging Member States to make videoconferencing or other distance communication technology available, specifying the relevant technology and the interoperability standards and establishing judicial cooperation for the purposes of providing the parties to the proceedings with access to the infrastructure necessary for use of videoconferencing or other distance communication technology in the premises of the competent authorities in the Member State where a party is present.

2. Unless an equivalent notification procedure applies under other Union legal acts, the Member States shall provide the Commission on an annual basis with the following information relevant for the evaluation of the operation and application of this Regulation:

(a) three years from the date of entry into force of each of the implementing acts referred to in Article 10(3), the costs incurred for establishing or adjusting their relevant national IT systems to make them interoperable with the access points;

(b) three years from the entry into force of each of the implementing acts referred to in Article 10(3)(b), the length of first instance judicial proceedings, from the reception of the application by the competent authority until the date of the decision, under the legal acts listed in points 3, 4 and 9 of Annex I, where such information is available;

(c) three years from the date of entry into force of each of the implementing acts referred to in Article 10(3), the length of time needed to transmit information on the decision on recognition and execution of a judgment or a judicial decision or, if not applicable, to transmit information on the results of the execution of such a judgment or a judicial decision, under the legal acts listed in points 1 to 7 and 9 to 11 of Annex II, grouped by corresponding legal act, where available;

(d) three years from the date of entry into force of each of the implementing acts referred to in Article 10(3), the number of requests transmitted through the decentralised IT system in accordance with Article 3(1) and (2), where such information is available.

3. For the purpose of establishing a sample, each Member State shall designate one or more competent authorities to collect the data on the number of hearings conducted by those authorities in which videoconferencing or other distance communication technology was used in accordance with Articles 5 and 6. Such data shall be provided to the Commission from 2 May 2026.

4. The reference implementation software and, where equipped to do so, the national back-end system shall programmatically collect the data referred to in paragraph 2, points (b), (c) and (d) and transmit them to the Commission on an annual basis.

5. Member States shall make every endeavour to collect the data referred to in paragraph 2, points (b), (c) and (d).