Mr. Didier Reynders:

Yes, general information. The concrete case, of course, is in the hands of the prosecutors and they need to decide if they want to do that but maybe we have to inform better about what we are doing all the time in the accountability process. We are engaged in a process with the prosecutors of the ICC and the Dutch Government on this and have put forward a kind of discussion about the way to inform better on what we are doing.

On data protection and e-evidence, it is a proposal of the Commission since 2018 because we are in the trilogue with the Parliament and Council and every month I receive information that we may have a solution for the next month, and that is again the case this month. There are discussions at the EU level to have a new trilogue and to solve the issue but the Senator is right it is a necessity for the prosecutors to have better access to e-evidence and in a short period of time and not to allow the destruction of that evidence before it can be used. The committee knows Ireland has a specific place in that because there is much e-evidence located in the big tech companies working in Ireland.

On the majority of judges in the Judicial Council, I have said it is a clear decision of the member states because we are all members of the Council of Europe and at a committee of the Council of Europe it was a clear European standard to say that if you put into place a judicial council or something like that, it is important to give the majority of seats in such a council to judges elected by their peers, so there are direct elections in the judiciary. Of course, you will continue with the other part of the council, appointed by the parliament or other political bodies, so there is a balanced situation but if you want to reinforce the independence of the judiciary and cut more and more the link with the executive branch and the legislative branch, it is important to think about the possibility of giving the majority in the council to judges elected by their peers and not ex officio. It is what we are asking of Poland. It is what we are asking Hungary to organise better. I was in Spain at the end of September and it is a huge debate there. It was possible to change the constitution in Luxembourg to do that and it was possible to put forward a reform in Italy to do the same, so slowly we are moving to a mechanism that gives a real responsibility to the judge in the process.

The Senator referred to all the appointments. It certainly applies to the highest level of the judiciary, when you put in place such a council. If you are doing that it is very important to stick to the rule and the rule is a majority of the members must be judges elected by their peers and we are putting that in different recommendations for different member states.