Vivian Reding s'adresse aux participants à la confrérence Penamnet du 8/11/2011

1. Press Release
PENALNET CONFERENCE IN BRUSSELS
VicepresidentReding: “E-justice will be
a legal reality for citizens, businesses
and legal practitioners.”
 PenalNet is the first virtual network for European criminal lawyers in
cooperation with lawyers from France, Hungary, Italy, Romania and
Spain, and as of this month, the two Belgian Bars.
Brussels, 9 November 2011.-The opening ceremony of the PenalNet
Conference, the first secure communication network between European criminal
lawyers taking place in Brussels has been participated by the Vice-President of
the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice, Viviane Reding (via
videoconference) and the Director of the e-Justice Committee of the EU Council
Fernando Paulino Pereira, together with lawyers from all over Europe and
representatives from various European Bar councils and institutions.
The Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for
Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, who participated in
the opening ceremony by videoconference, highlighted the efforts of the Spanish
Bar “for the ambitious initiative it has just undertaken in the context of e-
Justice”.
Moreover, Reding, highlighted that Penalnet is a very promising project as
regards crossborder cooperation of legal practitioners. Both the implementation
of an electronic communication platform for lawyers and the use of encrypted
videoconference technologies will make it much easier, faster and more cost
efficient to exchange information and to cooperate efficiently”.
E-justice will be a legal reality for citizens, businesses and legal practitioners.
She also pointed out the advances made in matters of cooperation by the
European Union, as a “we have to think about common regulations in matters of
fundamental rights, rights of victims and also in substantive criminal law”.
The Director of the e-Justice Committee of the European Union Council,
Fernando Paulino Pereira, pointed out the close relationship between PenalNet
and the EU e-Justice project stressing that “one day e-Justice and PenalNet are
going to be two sides of the same coin”. Fernando PaulinoPereira, also said that
the intention of the EU Council “is to work with the Bars, as when talking of
Justice we are talking of cooperating with the actors of Justice and lawyers are
the principal players in this”.
Information and Partners  www.penalnet.eu  management@penalnet.eu

2. Press Release
In Carlos Carnicer's opinion, “we know that justice delayed is not justice,
and law and technology are a source of prosperity and progress.They need to
advance hand in hand to build Europe”. For Carnicer, “Europe is increasingly
becoming a unique judicial space which includes millions of people, in which
information technology and technology are tools for continuous improvement,
instruments of equality, justice and competitiveness, services that help breaking
down barriers day after day which are even higher than the Berlin Wall, the
Pyrenees Mountains or deeper than the English Channel”.
Carnicer also highlighted his satisfaction at the recent adhesion of the
Belgian Bar Associations (the Flemish speaking order and the French and German
speaking order) to the PenalNet project which now forms part of the Bar Councils
of Spain, France, Italy and Romania.
PENALNET
The PenalNet Conference, which has brought together lawyers from all over
Europe at the Instituto Cervantes in Brussels, is the first meeting of this virtual
network for criminal lawyers in Europe and has the participation of thousands of
lawyers from France, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Spain already take part, and
which the Bars of other countries will join shortly.
The design of the Conference, in the words of Carlos Carnicer, “has been
conceived as a project of innovation, building a team, which defends the
essential values of the profession, with a huge impact and recognition and for the
future”.
Through PenalNet,the EU lawyers can establish communications and
exhcange documents with their colleagues in a completely secure, efficient and
confidential way over the internet. In addition, PenalNet provides lawyers with
encrypted multi-videoconferencing facilitieswhichwill permit the development of
virtual meetings between lawyers in different points of Europe, guaranteeing the
safety of communications for the lawyer and confidentiality for their client.
PenalNet, a project headed by the Spanish Bar and supported and co-
financed by the European Union, has been highlighted as one of the most
important technological projects for e-Justice by the Vice-President of the
European Commission and the Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights
and Citizenship, Viviane Reding.
The secure communications network, PenalNet, started a second phase of
the project in 2011 known as PenalNet Plus, of which a delegation of
representatives from PenalNet has started a presentation tour of the platform in
Information and Partners  www.penalnet.eu  management@penalnet.eu

3. Press Release
Belgium, Holland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Greece, United
Kingdom and Poland, to demonstrate the advantages of joining the first network
for criminal lawyers in Europe and the benefits it can offer lawyers in their daily
work and ultimately, to the benefit of citizens.
In fact the interest of European criminal lawyers has been confirmed by
over 60,000 visits to the website www.penalnet.eu in the first few months. This
response by European legal professionals to a pioneering initiative such as
PenalNet represents one more step in the development of a common
technological framework of European Justice, e-Justice.
AWARD TO CCBE
The framework of the PenalNet Conference also provided the setting for the
presentation of the Innovation Award to Georges-Albert Dal, President of the
Council of European Bars (CCBE), who received the award on behalf of the
Spanish Bar by the President, Carlos Carnicer, for CCBE's work and contribution
to e-Justice. CCBE has created, jointly with PenalNet, the first European e-ID
card for lawyers. These professional cards use EU standardized digital
certification, which grant interoperability thus assuring a valid proof of the
condition of lawyer across the EU and also incorporating access to a wide variety
of services. The work of two former CCBE Presidents Mr. Peter Koves (2008)
who created the e-Justice strategy of the CCBE and José MaríaDavóFernández
(2010) who promoted CCBE’s participation in the E-Codex project was also
honoured as attendants of the event.
LEGAL AID
Another interesting project was the online legal aid system created by the
Spanish Bar (www.justiciagratuita.es). This project, presented by Julen
Fernández Conte, EU Director of the CGAE, has become a source of inspiration
for the European Commission contractor for theEU feasibility study on online
legal aid. The speaker stated that “a lot has been done for the four freedoms, but
they become wet paper without the one fundamental right of defense and legal
aid”. He further stated that “legal aid for the poor is still poorly regulated”
although there are grounds for improvement now that the Charter of
Fundamental Rights has entered into force and the adhesion to the HR
Convention should foster this too. Online legal aid facilitates access to justice to
European citizens by reducing delays and costs and improves the management
by the Bars in comparison to other traditional and paper based models.
Information and Partners  www.penalnet.eu  management@penalnet.eu

4. Press Release
A NETWORK FOR THE ENTIRE EU
The project, headed by the Spanish Bar, aims to establish a large network which
incorporates all the criminal lawyers from all the Bars of the European Union and
is co-financed by the Directorate-General of Justice of the European Commission.
For further information please
contact:
Diego Rafael León Burgos
management@penalnet.eu
+32 (0)2 280 05 26
Website:www.penalnet.eu(includes explanatory video on the
project)
Information and Partners  www.penalnet.eu  management@penalnet.eu