Estonia supports expanding the European Union’s IT agency eu-Lisa into the area of justice

30.10.2020. During yesterday’s cabinet meeting, the members of the Government gave their support to transferring cross-border IT solutions in the area of justice to the IT-agency eu-LISA.

The agency, which commenced its activity eight years ago, has thus far mainly been engaged in providing IT-solutions in the area of internal security. It is the European Union’s IT-agency that is headquartered in Tallinn; the technical development and administration of the systems takes place in Strasbourg.“Due to an IT-agency not being put in place before in order to develop and manage cross-border systems in the area of justice, and as the creation of technical solutions for data exchange has only taken place under the leadership of the member-states, extending the agency’s activities to cross-border systems in the area of justice is an important step in digitising justice. This will also enable one to achieve interoperability between two important areas,” said Minister of Justice Raivo Aeg.The area of justice has ever-growing needs for cross-border data exchange, which is driven by various European Union initiatives. A project for the cross-border exchange of e-evidence applications in criminal proceedings has been launched, and regulations on the service of documents and compiling evidence in civil matters are also being adopted.A number of changes are needed for the agency to be able to manage systems in the area of justice. “Changes need to be made to legislation; the current management model of the IT-agency and an independent budget must be put together for the development and management of systems in the area of justice. We now have an agreement at the government level, and we are ready to work together towards this objective, so that in 2023, it will be possible to extend the IT-agency’s competencies to the area of justice,” Aeg explained.