Presentation of priorities to the EP Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) - Hoofdinhoud

On 9 September, the Minister of Justice, Marjan Dikaučič, presented the Slovenian Presidency's priorities and objectives for justice to members of the JURI Committee. The common thread is the protection of human rights in light of the challenges posed by new technologies and internet use.

Priorities in the justice domain include the protection of children’s rights, the impact of AI on fundamental rights and freedoms, the e-evidence file, the EU's accession to the Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, the examination of the proposal for a Regulation on the law applicable to the third-party effects of assignments of claims, and the digitalisation of justice.

We need to regulate artificial intelligence with full responsibility and foster cooperation among all global actors that create standards for ethical and fundamental rights-based artificial intelligence. We want it to serve the good of humanity and to bring prosperity.

Marjan DikaučičMinister of Justice

On judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters, our priority is the EU's accession to the Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters. The accession will further improve access to justice through the creation of a uniform set of core rules on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil and commercial matters. This will also increase legal certainty for EU businesses and citizens, which will have a positive impact on international trade and investment.

The Minister underlined the importance of the digitalisation of the judiciary. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how vulnerable we are in many areas. It is digitalisation and its rapid development that have enabled us to find new ways and means to keep society as a whole functioning. This is an additional incentive and challenge for us to speed up progress in the digitalisation of justice.

The Minister announced a virtual conference on combating hate speech and hate crime, as well as on effective victim protection, which Slovenia is organising in cooperation with the European Commission on 28 October this year. Minister Dikaučič said that our starting point must be that "what is not allowed in the real world should not be allowed in the virtual world, either."