Vol. 474 No. 4
102 Mr. M. McDowell asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform if he will make a statement on the reasons given by other member states of the EU expressing doubts, opposition or reservation to the proposal for a European convention case book and judgment registry data base; whether he will publish records of the Government's dealings with other member states in relation to this project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3273/97]
As mentioned in the reply to a parliamentary question on 11 June last I had this proposal put before the other EU member states with a view to determining whether there was a sufficient level of support to justify proceeding further with it.
From discussions in the steering group dealing with judicial co-operation in civil matters and the responses to a questionnaire it became clear that the requisite level of support was not forthcoming. The reasons given by the other member states for not proceeding further included the following: full implementation of the proposal would be costly, particularly for those member states whose court records were not automated; it was unlikely to be cost effective; for some member states, the proposal would involve legal problems relating to individual privacy and data protection; for certain countries, access to the fact that an action was pending against a firm could adversely affect its commercial reputation and financial standing; the proposal offered little assistance to maintaining the overall effectiveness of the Brussels convention; the database would contain no information on proceedings which would not have a crossborder element; court officials would not always identify proceedings taken under the Brussels convention and this would reflect on the accuracy of the data bases. The responses to the questionnaire from the delegations of the other member states are classified as restricted and, accordingly, I regret that I am not in a position to make them available.
