The European Notarial Network (ENN) met in Vienna at the beginning of June. The event included a high-level specialist seminar on the practicability of the European Certificate of Succession (ECS). The seminar was live-streamed in two languages, enabling a large number of professionals from all over Europe, as well as the European Commission, to follow the event.

Under the scientific supervision of Professor Gregor Christandl (University of Graz) and the Austrian notary Alice Perscha, high-level experts were invited to speak on issues such as parallel proceedings, access to land registers and the creation and interconnection of ECS registers.

The day before the conference, the first annual meeting of the ENN national interlocutors was held. The President of the ÖNK, Michael Umfahrer, welcomed the contact persons from the 22 participating EU Member States, as well as representatives from Serbia and Ukraine, whose notariats are observer members of the CNUE. The Ukrainian representative described the current situation of the notariat in her country, in particular the need for electronic archiving, since many archives have been damaged by the war.

The network relies on personal contacts to ensure that individual requests for support in handling cross-border cases within the notarial profession are dealt with as efficiently and effectively as possible. At a ceremony in Brussels in March this year, the CNUE looked back on more than 15 years of success for the ENN and also presented, in cooperation with the European Commission, prospects for its future development. On the one hand, the ENN is set to become the one-stop shop for European notaries in matters of mutual legal assistance. To this end, the online platform www.enn-rne.eu will be developed. Secondly, cooperation between the ENN and the EJN (European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters) could be enhanced.

On this point, discussions were held on the basis of an initiative by the Austrian notariat, and a number of concrete ideas were put forward: making information sheets available on the European Commission's e-justice portal, exchanging experience in handling cross-border cases online, etc. These ideas will be developed with a view to their adoption at the next meeting, to be held in Valencia in October.

On 2 June (9:30- 14:30), the Austrian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries is organising a training seminar on the European Certificate of Succession (ECS) within the framework of the European Notarial Network. The event will be an excellent opportunity to take stock of the experience gained with the EU-wide use of the ECS and to develop the professional exchange on this important topic with notaries from all over Europe.

Interpretation will be provided in German and English. Registration closes on 23 May.

Programme

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On 23 March afternoon, the Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) will hold the closing conference of the “MAPE Successions” project. This project was co-financed by the European Union and aimed to assess the application of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on international successions by notaries.

During the two-year long project, more than 2,100 notaries contributed and shared their experiences on a wide range of topics covered by the Regulation. All these data were analysed and discussed by a team of academics and notaries, who will present their conclusions and recommendations at the conference on 23 March in Brussels.

The conference will be organised in a hybrid format (in person or via streaming) and interpretation will be provided in French and English.

Draft Programme

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