The future of justice lies in empowering citizens – Bonnici

Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Owen Bonnici said the future of justice  lies in decreasing red tape and increasing rights enjoyed by EU citizens.  Bonnici said this could be achieved through the transmission of simple and effective information to all citizens about their substantive and procedural rights emanating from both National and European legislation in their interaction with the justice system, particularly in the field of enforcement of judgments in different member states.

Addressing a Justice and Home Affairs session of the Council of the European Union which took place in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, Bonnici contributed to a very healthy debate on the future of the Justice Area in the EU.

Bonnici explained that ICT is the key for better and more efficient Courts in all levels of the judicial systems in Europe and stressed that the EU can drive forward a project which would oversee the implementation in all Member States of state of the art IT-based Court Management Systems.

"That would lead to more harmonisation and increasing co-operation within the various legal systems in Europe particularly in the Civil Law field," he said.

Bonnici said that in the criminal field, the European Union must strengthen the good work which is being done at EUROJUST level and through the European Investigation Order project.   He said that the Lisbon Treaty granted better tools to the European Union in the field of Justice but it would be advisable that the UE undertakes a stock-taking initiative to evaluate whether the implementation of the various initiatives which have already been approved in recent years has been successful and effective Europe-wide.

During the session another debate took place on Data Protection and the Justice Ministers discussed effective matters on how to increase co-operation on a European level in this sector.