'Work together more at European level'

New technologies like blockchain and the cloud require new European regulations. And greater collaboration among European notaries. This was the message heard last week at the 8th Futurology Forum of the Council of Notaries of Europe, the CNUE.

European notaries need to collaborate more to develop a joint strategy, for example, in the area of cross-border transactions. They can use data from different countries for this purpose. This was stated by Hungarian notary Tamás Parti during his lecture on the relevance of data for notaries. He himself contributed to a study that collected various data on inheritances and cross-border transactions.

Eudoc
An example of European collaboration is the Eudoc project, a digital platform for European notaries. Nadja Danninger, a candidate notary from Germany, and notary José Carmelo Llopis from Spain showed the forum participants how the German/Spanish platform works. The platform allows users to find and securely exchange various documents—such as powers of attorney. The plan is to launch a pilot program this year.

Cloud
Hungarian lawyer and privacy law specialist Péter Halmos discussed working in the cloud. More and more notarial services are using it. Halmos explained that this way of working requires different regulations. What are the implications for the protection of personal data, and which jurisdiction applies to data stored elsewhere?

Blockchain
Another relatively new technology was also discussed: blockchain. Perrine de Coëtlogon, a blockchain expert affiliated with the University of Lille, spoke about the European Blockchain Partnership. This partnership now brings together 30 countries with the goal of establishing European standards for data security and privacy, including that of notarial services.

Working group
The aforementioned new technologies are also regularly discussed in the CNUE New Technologies working group. Two members of this working group, Isabelle Cox and Martin Beenen, attended the forum, as did Bernadette Verberne, innovation manager of the Royal Dutch Association of Civil-Law Notaries.