The essential e-SENS added value is to demonstrate that it is feasible, realistic and sustainable to deploy real-life ICT services within and among European countries. Therefore, the developed technical solutions are being implemented in production pilot environments where actual transactions can take place among public administrations, or between them and European citizens and businesses, based on the technical building blocks. To date, six domains have been identified for real-life piloting:
• e-Health
Citizens travelling in another country are able to receive treatment from healthcare professionals who can access the medical and insurance information they need from the patient’s country of origin.
• e-Justice
It facilitates the resolution of legal issues across national borders, and establishes better and faster cross-border communication channels between courts, citizens, businesses and legal professionals.
• e-Procurement
The pilot enables every economic operator from any European country to take part in an electronic tender procedure in another country. Small and large businesses will be able to complete, just in a few steps, a process which is now a cumbersome task, often excluding foreign suppliers from the majority of tender competitions within other Member States.
20 PEPPOL webpage http://www.peppol.eu /02.02.2016/
21 STORK webpage https://www.eid-stork.eu /02.02.2016/
22 epSOS webpage http://www.epsos.eu /02.02.2016/
23 SPOCS webpage http://www.eu-spocs.eu /02.02.2016/
24 e-SENS White Paper http://www.esens.eu/uploads/media/e-SENS_white_paper_general_06.pdf /02.02.2016/
25 e-SENS webpage http://www.esens.eu/node/420 /02.02.2016/
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• Business Lifecycle
Business owners who want to set up a branch or a subsidiary in another country, entrepreneurs interested in starting a new company, or professionals who plan to offer services in a country other than their own, will be able to submit documents and complete formalities online via Points of Single Contact.26
• Citizen Lifecycle
A European citizen will have an easy access to a broad collection of national e-services that all have one thing in common – they serve citizens digitally. The envisaged use cases are specific to certain stages of European citizens’ life (e.g. pregnancy, birth, study, work, tax, health, education etc.) and could potentially be provided as cross-border e-services.
• e-Agriculture
The pilot aims to assist farmers in accessing all digitally available services across borders, thanks to a seamless authentication process based on notified national tools.27
The objective of e-SENS in the e-Justice domain is to facilitate access to cross-border legal procedures and legal tools for citizens and businesses. In developing solutions for e-Justice, the project follows the Multi Annual European e-Justice Action Plan 2014–2018 and the Towards a European e-Justice Strategy, which both aim to provide citizens with easier access to judicial information and boost judicial cooperation. Moreover, e-SENS will enable citizens and judicial authorities to use electronic means of communication within various existing EU procedures.
The e-SENS e-Justice domain pilots two use cases: “Matrimonial Matters and parental responsibility” and “European Account Preservation Order” (EAPO). These use cases offer the opportunity to consolidate and reuse the infrastructure of the e-CODEX project, while potentially exploring new possibilities:
1. Matrimonial Matters and Parental Responsibility
This use case supports the implementation of the Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/200328 of 27 November 2003 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility. The regulation establishes important rules which aim to simplify the mechanisms of recognition and enforcement of foreign decisions in one of the Member States (MS) and lays down rules on international child abduction.
Under the pilot, e-SENS simplifies access to cross-border legal procedures within civil law by implementing transnational digital services for European citizens. It facilitates registration and execution of a judgment (e.g. divorce, separation and child abduction) obtained in another Member State. The project enables submission and receipt of documents by electronic means, which makes the whole process faster and safer for citizens, lawyers and courts within the whole Europe. The tangible benefits for citizens, lawyers and courts are the following:
26 Points of Single Contact are one-stop-shops for service providers to get information and complete administrative formalities online in all EU countries http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/eu-go/index_en.htm /02.02.2016/
27 e-SENS Real-life piloting http://www.esens.eu/?q=piloting /02.02.2016/
28 Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32003R2201 /02.02.2016/
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• faster recognition and enforcement of legal decisions,
• seamless resolution of cross border family disputes,
• secure electronic documents exchange,
• reduced costs of procedures,
• reduced need for legal assistance,
• better communication channels between courts, citizens and legal professionals.
2. European Account Preservation Order (EAPO)
This use case is based on EU Regulation 655/201429 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 establishing a European Account Preservation Order procedure to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial matters by blocking the amount of the debt in the debtor’s bank account. The regulation will apply from 18 January 2017. Therefore, within that period, the e-SENS project will support EU Member States prepare the necessary technical infrastructure and tools to enable electronic handling of EAPO when the Regulation comes into force.30
Solutions proposed by e-SENS enable handling EAPO electronically in order to meet the short deadlines, as well as the debtor’s legal rights. A claimant can easily submit all necessary documents and receive the decision from the competent court online. The competent enforcement authority/
bailiff will communicate electronically with the court and/or the claimant to inform them of the blocking of the debtor’s funds. Thanks to the deployed e-SENS solution, European citizens and companies will benefit from easier day-to-day operations:
• seamless recovery of cross-border debts,
• electronic transmission of standard documents and information,
• reduced costs of procedures,
• reduced need for legal assistance,
• better, faster and more reliable communication between courts, claimants and enforcement authorities.
Knowledge and experience of e-SENS in terms of interoperability can be easily exploited by private and public sectors, i.e. IT companies and public bodies. Open source and standard-based solutions without any specific agreements and licenses will be easily accessible for commercial purposes. The project developments within e-Justice can be used for both cross-border and also national communication, e.g. between courts. Public and private stakeholders will see what technical solutions can be implemented in the legal sector to develop specific systems.
Furthermore, thanks to e-SENS, IT business and public administration will be provided with the necessary demonstration and support to facilitate the implementation of e-Justice use cases31.
29 EU Regulation 655/2014 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014R0655 /02.02.2016/
30 e-SENS e-Justice Communication Plan; project internal document
31 Ibidem