The EEEI is European by vocation — and by conviction. At the level of the European Union, we work to raise the standard of judicial expertise and to secure recognition of judicial experts as a genuine professional category within the EU justice system. The challenge is clear: without such recognition, experts remain absent from the European agenda — excluded from judicial training programmes and from the very mechanisms designed to strengthen the justice system to which they contribute.
One certainty stands out: by 2030, judicial experts cannot afford to miss the opportunity to connect with other professionals in the judicial sphere. Building these links today means securing the rightful place of the profession within the European justice system of tomorrow.
True to this commitment, the EEEI has moved from words to action. In February and again in April, the Institute submitted two funding proposals to the European Union, dedicated to two key pillars of judicial expertise in Europe:
- AI JEXP – Artificial Intelligence and European Judicial Expertise
- EU‑EXPERTLINK – Judicial Experts and European Justice: Challenges of Integration and Recognition
AI JEXP – Artificial Intelligence and European Judicial Expertise, response to the call for proposals submitted on 24 FEBRUARY 2026
AI‑JEXP : a European project for the responsible use of artificial intelligence in judicial expertise
The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into judicial expertise is transforming how judicial expert (JE) evidence is produced and assessed in the EU. However, this evolution remains fragmented, with significant disparities in awareness, skills, ethical safeguards and risk-management practices across Member States.
To better understand these gaps, the EEEI conducted a comprehensive survey in September 2025 among its members. Responses from JE in Italy, Romania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Spain provide a representative evidence base.
Preliminary analysis confirms a strong need for structured EU-level training on the responsible and transparent use of AI in judicial expertise. The survey highlights key gaps: limited shared understanding of how AI functions and its limitations; uncertainty regarding ethical duties, transparency and explainability; concerns about data protection and procedural integrity; and insufficient capacity to assess risks such as bias, reliability and accountability. The absence of harmonised best practices further increases disparities across Member States. The findings also show that many court-appointed JE already use AI tools discreetly. Their main challenges are ethical, legal and organisational rather than technical, with uncertainty about what is permitted or must be disclosed acting as a major barrier. Meanwhile, judges, lawyers and bailiffs increasingly rely on JE reports that may involve AI without full visibility regarding safeguards or limitations, creating risks for transparency and fairness.
Despite the growing impact of AI on JE work, and the recognised role of JE in the effectiveness of judicial systems by CEPEJ, JE are not included as a target group in the European Judicial Training Strategy 2025–2030. This omission creates a structural gap, especially given the Strategy’s emphasis on addressing disparities in EU-law training across professions. Without targeted training for JE, uneven or unsafe use of AI in proceedings is likely to grow, undermining mutual trust and the coherent application of EU law.
The proposed project directly addresses this gap, with the aim of achieving gains in judicial efficiency through the correct, ethical and transparent use of AI tools by JE.
- It recognises JE as a distinct target group that is essential to protecting the quality of justice in the EU;
- promotes a harmonised European approach to the use of AI in expertise;
- supports responsible digitalisation while preserving the human dimension of expert assessment.
The project meets the call’s objectives by strengthening AI-related skills through high-quality cross-border training, promoting responsible and rights-compliant AI use, preventing discrimination and supporting harmonised practices that reinforce mutual trust. JE from multiple fields and Member States are the primary beneficiaries, while judges, prosecutors, lawyers and bailiffs benefit from increased transparency and shared standards for AI-assisted expertise.
Aligned with Action 1 of the European Judicial Training Strategy 2025–2030, the project offers tailored training to ensure ethical, transparent and legally compliant AI use. Priority topics include responsible AI in line with EU law, AI literacy (benefits, limits, risks), the impact of AI on expert roles, data-protection compliance and the sharing of best practices. Training will also address risks of discriminatory outcomes, including gender-based bias and racism.
| Call priority | Project output |
| Digital & AI skills | AI literacy modules + practical exercises |
| Ethical & non-discriminatory AI | Guidelines, bias-detection tools, gender-responsive training |
| EU law in digital context | Modules on AI Act, GDPR, data protection, CEPEJ Principles |
| Awareness of AI risks | Case studies, guidelines, simulations |
| Cross-border harmonisation | Transferable modules across Member States, shared best practices |
| Inclusion of under-represented groups | Dedicated pathway for judicial experts |
| Human-centred digitalisation | Tools ensuring transparency, explainability and human oversight |
Project summary
Judicial expertise is becoming increasingly central in judicial proceedings and can no longer remain an obscure or unevenly regulated part of justice systems. The role, status and training of judicial experts (JE) differ widely across EU Member States, ranging from simple lists managed by judges to formal national registers. This fragmentation makes it essential to address AI related skills and responsibilities of JE at EU level. Coordinated action is needed to identify best practices, provide structured training and promote exchanges among JE to ensure reliable, transparent and ethically compliant use of AI. While some countries are developing national initiatives, a coherent EU level response is urgently required.
Based on EEEI long standing experience within CEPEJ and on the results of the 2025 EEEI survey on JE & AI, AI-JEXP project is a European training initiative designed to strengthen the capacity of JE to use AI to contribute to the efficiency of justice, responsibly, transparently and in full respect of EU fundamental rights. It combines a structured multidisciplinary pathway with knowledge sharing and long-term measures enabling experts to operate confidently within the evolving EU regulatory framework.
Through hybrid modules, case studies, peer learning and expert led workshops, the project enhances JE’s ability to address AI related challenges, including ethics, transparency, bias and risk assessment. It also raises awareness among judges, lawyers and bailiffs and develops long term EU level actions to disseminate best practices, foster cooperation and strengthen public trust in AI within justice systems.
AI-JEXP project will focus on two potential discriminations in the field of JE. Gender discrimination: why are there far fewer women on the lists of JE? When expertise is financially supported by one party, financial disparity between parties can have a significant impact on the proceeding.
Specific objectives
- Equip JE with the knowledge and skills necessary for the conscious, secure and responsible use of AI;
- Promote common ethical principles, transparency standards and risk‑assessment practices;
- Inform and train other justice professionals on EU the implications of AI use by JE;
- Establish permanent European‑level tools (observatory, exchange forum, knowledge platform) to ensure sustainability and long‑term impact.
Project major innovations – European added value
- first EU‑level training pathway specifically designed for judicial experts;
- systematic integration of AI ethics, transparency, explainability and risk assessment into expert practice;
- creation of permanent EU‑level tools (observatory, knowledge platform, exchange forum) ensuring long‑term impact;
- a gender‑responsive, non‑discriminatory approach embedded throughout the training;
- support for cross‑border harmonisation aligned with the AI Act, GDPR and CEPEJ principles.
Financial partners
- CNEJITA – Compagnie Nationale des Experts Judiciaires en Informatique et Techniques Associées – FRA
- CEHJ – Chambre Européenne des Huissiers de Justice – BEL
- CNEJ – Collège National des Experts Judiciaires – BEL
Non financial support
- Chambre des Experts du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg – LUX
- NRGD – Nederlands Register Gerechtelijk Deskundigen – NLD
- Law School of Transilvania University of Brasov – ROU
- Prof.ssa avv. Benedetta UBERTAZZI – Faculty of Law MILAN BICOCCA / STEPPO Jean Monnet EU Centre of Excellence – ITA
Work plan
WP1 Project Management and Coordination
T1.1 Project Governance & Management Procedures
T1.2 Kick-off meeting & Consortium Coordination
T1.3 Monitoring, Quality Assurance & Evaluation
T1.4 Sustainability Planning & Long-Term Strategy (link to WP4)
WP2 Best practices
T2.1 – Analysis of Expert Tools, Practices & EU Framework
T2.2 – Multidisciplinary AI Expertise Working Group (Technology Watch Committee)
T2.3 – Development & Testing of Cross-Sectoral Best Practices
T2.4 – Training Framework and Monitoring Indicators (Training model)
WP3 Training and Best Practices for the use of AI in Judicial Expertise
T3.1 – Training Architecture & Module Design
T3.2 – Development of Training Modules, Guidelines & Best Practice Resources
T3.3 – European Trainers Network Development & Train the Trainers Programme
T3.4 – Pilot Deployment & Delivery of Training Sessions Deployment Strategy Finalisation & Model Validation
T3.5 – Awareness, Observatory Information & Quality Assurance
WP4 Long-term viability – Sustainability
T4.1 – Sustainability Framework & Stakeholder Integration
T4.2 – Long Term Governance Model & Accreditation System
T4.3 – Funding, Hosting & Long-Term Financial Strategy
T4.4 – Final Sustainability Mechanism & Validation
WP5 Communication, Dissemination and Visibility
T5.1 – Development of the overall communication and dissemination strategy Creation of communication materials
T5.2 –Website Updates & Digital Outreach
T5.3 – Organisation of Dissemination Events
T5.4 – Promotion and visibilityof WP3 outputs Targeted outreach actions
WP6 Closing meeting – Consensus Conference
T6.1 – Logistical Organisation of the Consensus Conference
T6.2 – Scientific and Professional Content Preparation
T6.3 – Implementation and Delivery of the Consensus Conference
T6.4 – Capitalisation of Results & Future Perspectives
EU-EXPERTLINK – Judicial Experts and European Justice: Challenges of Integration and Recognition, response to the call for proposals submitted on 22 APRIL 2026
EU-EXPERTLINK: the first step towards a European infrastructure for judicial expertise
Judicial expertise — the court-appointment of technical experts in civil and criminal proceedings — is a cornerstone of justice systems across all EU Member States. Yet judicial expertise management remains one of the most fragmented dimensions of European judicial cooperation: experts list/registers, processes, legal frameworks, digital tools and quality standards vary enormously from one Member State to another, with no EU-level framework, shared database or common digital infrastructure in place.
Judicial experts are very weakly structured in the vast majority of EU Member States and are not represented at EU level and within the DG Justice.
This fragmentation creates concrete barriers to judicial cooperation: cross-border proceedings requiring expert involvement face significant delays, quality standards are inconsistent, gender imbalances in expert lists remain unmeasured and unaddressed, and the digitalisation of expert management lags behind the EU’s own targets under the Digitalisation Regulation (EU) 2023/2844 and the e-Justice Action Plan 2024–2028.
EU-EXPERTLINK directly responds to JUST-2026-JCOO Priority 1 (better enforcement of decisions, improved case-handling, cross-border procedures in civil matters) and Priority 2 (application of mutual recognition instruments, improvement of cross-border criminal proceedings). It pursues three interconnected general objectives:
- Support judicial cooperation by mapping existing national IT tools and processes for expert management, identifying those that can be shared with or adapted by other Member States, and providing advisory support for their adoption;
- Improve the effectiveness of national justice systems by facilitating access to operational, tested digital solutions and building the capacity of judicial practitioners through training and knowledge exchange;
- Contribute to the institutional anchoring of judicial expertise at EU level by preparing the ground for a European Representation of Judicial Experts (ERJE) — the first representative body for judicial experts before EU institutions
Primary target groups are all the ‘key players’ in the judicial expertise process:
- direct beneficiaries: judicial experts, magistrates/judges, clerks, lawyers;
- indirect beneficiaries: experts associations, Ministries of Justice, EU and national policy makers;
- ultimate beneficiaries: parties to proceedings, citizens.
For each group gender dimension will be considered in all phases, where applicable. At present in fact, equality between men and women is far from being achieved in the field of judicial expertise in Europe. Women are structurally under-represented in judicial expert lists across most EU Member States and in the missions entrusted to them. Few countries collect data to measure or monitor this gap.
A rapid survey conducted in 2025 by EEEI among 9 organisations in 4 Member States revealed that women account for between 5% and 30% of judicial experts, with figures ranging significantly across countries and specialisation fields (see table below). EU-EXPERTLINK directly benefits women practitioners by producing the first EU-wide sex-disaggregated dataset, collected by area of expertise, on expert lists (D2.4) and embedding gender-sensitive criteria in all advisory and training outputs.
| MS | Association | Females | Men | Nb members |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BE | ABEFRADOC | 27% | 73% | 120 |
| BE | AMJEJ | 26% | 74% | 110 |
| BE | CEL | 12% | 88% | 125 |
| BE | CNEJ | 22% | 78% | 59 |
| FR | CECAV | 31% | 69% | 464 |
| FR | CNCEJ | 28% | 72% | 10384 |
| FR | CNEJITA | 5% | 95% | 133 |
| NL | LRGD | 11% | 89% |
Although the judicial expertises assessed in criminal, civil, commercial and administrative cases differ in some management processes, the project takes into account all areas of expertise, including criminal matters, where timeframes, expertise, availability and, often, cost are key factors.
Project summary
EU-EXPERTLINK addresses a critical gap in the European area of justice: the management of judicial expertise varies significantly across Member States in terms of processes, legal frameworks and digital tools, creating barriers to judicial cooperation and delays in cross-border proceedings.
The project pursues three objectives. First, to map IT tools and digital solutions for expert management, conducted in two phases: a pilot across a selected group of Member States, then extended to all Justice Programme Members — assessing operational status, interoperability and compatibility with the EU’s digital justice infrastructure horizon (2030). Second, to evaluate these tools against common criteria — transferability, maturity, scalability — and deliver advisory digitalisation roadmaps tailored to each Member State’s context: results updated on the e-justice portal.
Third, to build practitioners’ capacity through training and a multilingual Practitioner’s Guide, and lay the groundwork for a European Representative Body for Judicial Experts (ERJE) — the first representative body for judicial experts before EU institutions.
EU-EXPERTLINK is explicitly complementary to — and non-duplicative of — existing EU instruments: FindEx II (dedicated to expert registration but not mapping national IT systems), e-CODEX, and the e-Justice Portal. No current EU initiative provides a structured, comparative, digitalisation-focused analysis of national expert management systems.
Gender mainstreaming is embedded across all work packages: sex-disaggregated data collection, gender-sensitive curriculum design, and gender-differentiated outcome monitoring, with the help of European bailiffs.
EU-EXPERTLINK directly advances JUST-2026-JCOO Priorities 1 and 2, aligns with the EU Digitalisation Regulation (EU) 2023/2844 and contributes directly to reducing procedural delays and strengthening judicial cooperation across the EU, delivering sustainable outputs across 27 Member States within 24 months.
Specific objectives
- SO1: Map all existing processes, IT solutions and associated practices for judicial expert management in two sub-phases (pilot + all Justice Programme MS), covering all the 7 expertise steps: Registration & List Management, Selection & Appointment, Assignment Workflow with magistrates/clerks, Communication with parties & lawyers, Report Submission, Fee Settlement, Quality Evaluation & Monitoring
- SO2: Analyse transferability, interoperability and compliance with EU digitalisation requirements.
- SO3: Develop a step-by-step maturity framework and observations/suggestions compendium.
- SO4: Produce an Advisory Digital Adoption Roadmap with Scenario A/B/C assessment and advisory support.
- SO5: Build the capacity and knowledge of judicial practitioners, court staff and expert associations on European digital expertise management tools.
- SO6: Formulate advisory recommendations for the European Commission.
- SO7: Prepare the institutional ground for the European Representation of Judicial Experts (ERJE).
Finally, the project helps to improve the effectiveness of Member States’ national judicial systems and the effective enforcement of valid decisions through better procedures and more efficient case management, achieved through increased digitalisation and improvements to the judicial expertise process.
Project major innovations – European added value
- First EU-wide mapping of the full lifecycle of expert management across all Justice Programme MS, including processes and practices where no digital tools exist.
- Two-phase methodology (pilot validation → EU-wide extension) ensures methodological rigour and scalability.
- Three-scenario advisory framework (A/B/C) respects national diversity while enabling concrete crossborder solution sharing.
- EEEI is a long-standing CEPEJ observer, ensuring direct input to EU-level judicial efficiency frameworks.
- Gender equality: first EU-wide sex-disaggregated dataset on judicial expert lists
Financial partners
- CEHJ – Chambre Européenne des Huissiers de Justice – BEL
- UNIVERSITA’ DI MILANO BICOCCA (Faculty of Law / STEPPO Jean Monnet EU Excellence Centre) – ITA
Non financial supporters
- Minister of Justice of Luxembourg – LUX
- Chamber of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg – LUX
- NRGD – Nederlands Register Gerechtelijk Deskundigen – NLD
- CNEJITA – Compagnie Nationale des Experts Judiciaires en Informatique et Techniques Associées – FRA
- Le cabinet d’avocats luxembourgeois Brucher Thieltgen & Partners
- Jean-Baptiste Haquet – Chairman of the EEEI Steering Committee, French Judge, President of Chamber at the Nancy Court of Appeal – Member of the Conseil Supérieur de la Magistrature – FRA
Work plan
WP 1: Project management and coordination
- Task 1.1 – Governance, Coordination and Kick-off
- Task 1.2 – Financial Management and Reporting
- Task 1.3 – Quality Assurance, Monitoring and Evaluation
WP 2: Comparative inventory of expert management IT tools and processes
- Task 2.1 – Inventory Methodology and Data Collection Framework
- Task 2.2 – Pilot-Phase Inventory (Sub-group of MS)
- Task 2.3 – Full-Scale Inventory (All Justice Programme MS)
- Task 2.4 – Participatory Validation Workshop
- Task 2.5 – Gender Analysis of Expert Lists
WP 3: Advisory digital adoption roadmap
- Task 3.1 – Transferability and Interoperability Assessment
- Task 3.2 – Step-by-Step Maturity Framework and Observations Compendium
- Task 3.3 – Advisory Roadmap and Pilot Phase Framework
- Task 3.4 – Advisory Roadmap Roundtable
WP 4: Capacity building, knowledge and practitioner resources
- Task 4.1 – Training Curriculum Design and Multilingual Materials
- Task 4.2 – Transnational Training Event
- Task 4.3 – Preparatory design of National Training Seminars
- Task 4.4 – Practitioner’s Guide
WP 5: Communication, dissemination and visibility
- Task 5.1 – Communication Strategy, Visual Identity and Web Presence
- Task 5.2 – Digital Newsletters
- Task 5.3 – Scientific Publications and Social Media
- Task 5.4 – Final Conference
WP 6: Sustainability and institutional representation of judicial experts at EU level
- Task 6.1 – Sustainability Planning for Project Outputs
- Task 6.2 – ERJE Consultations and Preparatory Work
- Task 6.3 – ERJE Feasibility Study
- Task 6.4 – ERJE Founding Congress
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