Preliminary assessment of the fourth payment request of Romania

the application were provided as supporting evidence to illustrate its functionality and user interface, and to substantiate its operational status.

3. Analysis:

The justification and substantiating evidence provided by the Romanian authorities cover all constitutive elements of the milestone.

In order to introduce a modern alternative for electronic access of the case files (“e-file”), this investment shall centralize the existing extensions of e-file in a single national “e-file” through which litigants shall be able to easily and securely access documents in court files.

According to the information provided, the challenges that the Romanian judicial system must overcome concern aspects related to bureaucratic workflows, the predominant use of paper/hardcopy documents, and fragmented/isolated IT systems. In order to reduce the operational risk of the existing case management system (the Electronic System for Recording Judicial Information, ECRIS IV version) and to introduce a modern/digital alternative for electronic access to case files, the implementation of this investment progressed through several stages, according to the information provided (Evidence No. 1 to Evidence No. 4b).

Stage one consisted in the development of the technical architecture for the electronic file application by a working group established within the judiciary (Evidence No. 2). The working group was composed of IT specialists from the judicial system (courts of appeal and tribunals) and was coordinated by the IT Department of the Ministry of Justice. Besides the identification of the optimal technical solution for the implementation of the application, this dedicated working group was also assigned to address: (1) the virtualisation of ECRIS IV informatic system by implementing IT technology that allows multiple virtual servers to run on a single physical machine (moving from fragmented, locally hosted infrastructure to centralized, cloud-like environment), to support the transition to ECRIS V; and (2) the optimization and testing of the judicial informatic system ECRIS IV, at the end of the installation.

Stage two consisted of the procurement, installation (together with the working group presented in stage 1) and configuration of the hardware and software equipment for the implementation of the application. Based on the evidence provided (Evidence Nos. 3a, 3b, and Evidence Nos. 4a, 4b), the hardware and software equipment necessary for the investment was procured, installed, and deployed in a central manner at the Ministry of Justice. The technical and functional transition of the case management system enabled centralized administration of the ECRIS IV judicial information system. This approach aimed to reduce the number of servers (from approximately 270 locations to 63 locations), thus supporting the technical transition from local to shared central servers, and optimizing the management and usage of technical resources (central servers), for the use of the national e-file. Moreover, this technical upgrade contributed to the improvement of communication capabilities and capacities by installing the newly acquired network and security equipment, which facilitates data transmission in a secure environment. Evidence Nos. 4a and 4b present certificates of

acceptance signed by the Ministry of Justice and the contractors, enumerating the acquired hardware and software equipment and demonstrating the technological upgrade of the IT infrastructure of the judiciary for use of applications’ virtualisation and centralisation and the national judiciary e-file.

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