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(1) Ensuring the effective access of citizens and businesses to justice and facilitating judicial cooperation in civil, including commercial, and criminal matters between the Member States are among the main objectives of the Union’s area of freedom, security and justice enshrined in Part three, Title V of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

(2) It is sometimes difficult to access justice systems for a number of reasons such as formalistic and expensive legal procedures, long procedural delays and high costs of using court systems.

(3) It is thus important that appropriate channels are developed to ensure that justice systems can efficiently cooperate in a digital way. Therefore, it is essential to establish, at Union level, an information technology system that allows for the swift, direct, interoperable, sustainable, reliable and secure cross-border electronic exchange of case-related data, while always respecting the right to protection of personal data. Such a system should contribute to improving access to justice and transparency by enabling citizens and businesses to exchange documents and evidence in digital form with judicial or other competent authorities, when provided for by national or Union law. That system should increase citizens’ trust in the Union and mutual trust between Member States’ judicial and other competent authorities.

(4) Digitalisation of proceedings in civil and criminal matters should be encouraged with the aim of strengthening the rule of law and fundamental rights guarantees in the Union, particularly by facilitating access to justice.

(5) This Regulation concerns the cross-border electronic exchange of data in the area of judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters. Judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters and the respective competences of judicial or other competent authorities should be understood in accordance with Union legal acts and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

(6) Tools which have not replaced or required costly modifications to the existing back-end systems established in the Member States have previously been developed for the cross-border electronic exchange of case-related data. The e-Justice Communication via Online Data Exchange (e-CODEX) system is the main such tool developed to date.

(7) The e-CODEX system is a tool specifically designed to facilitate the cross-border electronic exchange of data in the area of judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters. In the context of increased digitalisation of proceedings in civil and criminal matters, the aim of the e-CODEX system is to improve the efficiency of cross-border communication between competent authorities and to facilitate citizens’ and businesses’ access to justice. Until the handover of the e-CODEX system to the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA), established by Regulation (EU) 2018/1726 of the European Parliament and of the Council , the e-CODEX system will be managed by a consortium of Member States and organisations with funding from Union programmes (the ‘entity managing the e-CODEX system’).

(8) The e-CODEX system provides an interoperable solution for the justice sector to connect the IT systems of the competent national authorities, such as the judiciary, or other organisations. The e-CODEX system should therefore be viewed as the preferred solution for an interoperable, secure and decentralised communication network between national IT systems in the area of judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.

(9) For the purposes of this Regulation, the electronic exchange of data includes any content transmissible in electronic form by means of the e-CODEX system, such as text or sound, visual or audiovisual recordings, in the form of either structured or unstructured data, files or metadata.

(10) This Regulation does not provide for the mandatory use of the e-CODEX system. At the same time, nothing in this Regulation should prevent Member States from developing and maintaining pilot use cases.

(11) The e-CODEX system consists of two software elements: a gateway for the exchange of messages with other gateways; and a connector, which provides a number of functionalities related to the exchange of messages between national IT systems. Currently, the gateway is based on a building block of the Connecting Europe Facility maintained by the Commission known as ‘eDelivery’, while the management of the connector is carried out by the entity managing the e-CODEX system. The connector provides functions such as verification of electronic signatures via a security library and proof of delivery. In addition, the entity managing the e-CODEX system has developed data schemas for digital forms to be used in the specific civil and criminal procedures for which it has piloted the e-CODEX system.

(12) Given the importance of the e-CODEX system for cross-border exchanges in the area of judicial cooperation in the Union, the e-CODEX system should be established by means of a sustainable Union legal framework that provides for rules regarding its functioning and development. Such a legal framework should ensure the protection of fundamental rights as provided for in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, especially those enshrined in Title VI thereof, and in particular in Article 47 on the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial. It should in no way undermine the protection of procedural rights which are essential for the protection of those fundamental rights. It should also clearly set out and frame the components of the e-CODEX system in order to guarantee its technical sustainability and security. The e-CODEX system should establish the IT components of an e-CODEX access point, which should consist of a gateway for the purposes of secure communication with other identified gateways and a connector for the purpose of supporting the exchange of messages. The e-CODEX system should also include digital procedural standards to support the use of e-CODEX access points for legal procedures provided for by Union legal acts adopted in the area of judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters and to enable the exchange of information between the e-CODEX access points.

(13) Given that semantic interoperability, as one of the layers of interoperability, should be a contributing factor to achieving this Regulation’s objective of setting up a standardised and meaningful interaction between two or more parties, particular consideration should be given to the EU e-Justice Core Vocabulary, which is an asset for reusable semantical terms and definitions used to ensure data consistency and data quality over time and across use cases.

(14) Since it is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the e-CODEX system and its governance, while respecting the principle of the independence of the judiciary, an appropriate entity for the management of the e-CODEX system should be designated. The independence of the judiciary, in the context of the governance of the e-CODEX system within that entity, should be ensured.

(15) The most appropriate entity for the management of the e-CODEX system is an agency, since its governance structure would allow Member States to be involved in the management of the e-CODEX system by participating in the agency’s management board, programme management board and advisory group. eu-LISA has relevant experience in managing large-scale IT systems. eu-LISA should therefore be entrusted with the management of the e-CODEX system. It is also necessary to adjust the existing governance structure of eu-LISA by adapting the responsibilities of its Management Board and by establishing an e-CODEX Advisory Group. Regulation (EU) 2018/1726 should therefore be amended accordingly. A specific e-CODEX Programme Management Board should also be established, taking into account gender balance. The e-CODEX Programme Management Board should advise eu-LISA’s Management Board on the prioritisation of activities, including on developing digital procedural standards, new features and new software versions.

(16) In accordance with Article 19 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1726, the functions of eu-LISA’s Management Board are, inter alia, to ensure that all of eu-LISA’s decisions and actions which affect large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice respect the principle of independence of the judiciary. eu-LISA’s governance structure and financing scheme further guarantee that that principle is respected. It is also important to involve the legal professions, other experts and relevant stakeholders in the governance of the e-CODEX system through the e-CODEX Advisory Group and the e-CODEX Programme Management Board. The detailed arrangements and conditions as regards the involvement of the legal professions, other experts and relevant stakeholders should allow them to participate effectively and be consulted effectively, namely by ensuring their feedback is duly considered.