The European e-Justice Portal is run by the European Commission and was designed as a single online point of contact in the field of justice. It is available in 23 languages and addresses citizens, businesses, legal practitioners and judicial authorities alike.
What the portal holds
- information on the judicial system of each Member State and on how to bring a case;
- the family law and successions section: divorce, the property of spouses and partners, parental responsibility, maintenance obligations;
- the land, business and insolvency registers, interconnected at European level;
- the online forms of the cross-border procedures, among them the European order for payment and small claims;
- the European Judicial Atlas in civil matters and the European judicial networks;
- the tools for finding a legal practitioner, a notary included.
The link with notarial work
For the notariat the portal matters above all in succession matters: it carries the information on the application of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 and the forms of the European Certificate of Succession, together with the details of the competent authorities in each Member State.
The portal is also cited by the European Notarial Network among the official sources of information, alongside the thematic portals of the European notariat.
Why it is useful to citizens
Before starting a procedure in another Member State, the portal makes it possible to check the competent authority, the documents required and the fees payable. The information is official and organised by State, which reduces the risk of setting off down the wrong road.