Diana welcomes adoption of her report on e-justice

4.19.22pm GMT Thu 18th Dec 2008

Diana Wallis, Liberal Democrat MEP for Yorkshire & the Humber, has welcomed today's adoption of her report on e-justice in the European Parliament which received the overwhelming backing of fellow MEPs.

The report sets out an action plan for future work on improving the use of information technology in Europe's judicial and legal systems to enhance their efficiency and accessibility for citizens, businesses and practitioners.

Diana Wallis, speaking after the vote, said:

"There are already some very commendable projects and cooperation by certain Member States on the use of IT in Europe's judicial system, but there is still a need for greater coordination and, in particular, a greater emphasis on the citizen in all of this.

"Further work on e-justice should focus on facilitating access to justice for European citizens particularly in a cross border context through the availability of an European 'e-justice portal' for citizens. Such a 'portal' could, for example, facilitate applications for legal aid cross-border and ensure the availability of citizen friendly legal information resources in all Community languages.

"Ultimately, we would expect small claims to be able to be filed and processed cross-border through the Internet, thus offering real borderless justice."