Speech of the Prime Minister of the CZ Mirek Topolánek on the occasion of a start of test run of the project eJustice on 20th August 2007

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,

We would like to present further part of our reform effort, to say it with a touch of ethos, the project of a registry which is being starting test run here at the Central Bohemian Regional Court and which is a part of far broader electronization of the public administration. Its objective is to significantly facilitate contacts of citizens with authorities, and it also means with courts, and to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, which hamper activities of the individual institution. I think I need not say that the form of the public administration is always one of priorities of each government and thus nobody is surprised at the fact that it is also a priority of this government.

We presented the pilot project Czech Point in March, which enabled and which would enable in the future our citizens to obtain certified copies of entries in the Land Register, Commercial Register and the Register of Trades at one spot, and in the future also copies of entries in the criminal records. Gradually, it will also enable digitalization of the public administration.

Now through the Ministry of Justice the project of eRegister is being linked to those eGovernment projects. The system which is being tested here will give citizens a chance to communicate with courts in an electronic way – simply, without unnecessary paper work, safely, which may be a subject of your questions, and quickly.

The objective is the original and still unfulfilled intention of the reform of public administration, which should get the public administration and the state administration closer to citizens, to make it simpler and cheaper; it will not be possible without digitalization in the future. The original intentions of the reform of the public administration had no effect so far. This step, which we want to present today and to implement in the practice, is further step towards a modern state, which should rather serve for citizens, not command them. The final objective and it will be Jiří Pospíšil who will speak about it, is to enable fully electronic record circulation in the framework of the eJustice project. The Ministry of Justice will soon present further part further stone of a mosaic of the entire justice and it will be the Info SOUD (Info COURT). By means of it, it will be possible to follow the course of juridical proceedings in detail. It will prevent records from manipulation and it will make contacts of citizens with authorities easier.

I regard this day as a breakthrough, as a new stage of the development of the Czech justice in spite of the fact that we do not have ambitions to present you further elements of the justice reform today. This is a step by means of which we involve technology into the sphere of justice. We are of the opinion, and I am convinced that exercising of law will be simpler, more effective, faster and righter. And it will bring comfort to people who have no money for expensive lawyers and who have not possibility to hire somebody to settle all the piles of papers which are connected with a juridical proceeding.

And the last information concerning this – the project is not gratis; it is obvious that this government intends to invest in the legal state, in the digitalization of juridical proceedings. We do not economize in this sphere as this sphere belongs among priorities of the government. We invested or we will invest 475 million crowns in this sphere this year and we expect investments at the amount of 615 million crowns annually in the following years.

Now, I would like to give the floor to the Minister of Justice, Jiří Pospíšil, who will inform you on further details of this project.