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Conseil des Notariats de l'Union Européenne

CNUE

Le Conseil des Notariats de l'Union Européenne (CNUE) est l'organisme officiel et représentatif de la profession notariale auprès des institutions européennes.

Lobbying Activity

Response to 28th regime – a single harmonized set of rules for innovative companies throughout the EU

30 Sept 2025

The CNUE is ready to contribute its expertise to improve any legislative initiative aimed at supporting EU businesses throughout their lifecycle as they grow and expand. Please find in attachment CNUE's full feedback.
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Meeting with Dan Dionisie (Head of Unit Justice and Consumers)

11 Feb 2025 · Meeting with Conseil des Notariats de l'Union Européenne (CNUE) on 11.2.2025 at CNUE headquarters

Response to Report on the first review of the EU-US Data Privacy Framework

6 Sept 2024

It is essential for the notariats of the European Union that an adequacy decision can continue to exist in order to regulate the exchange of data between the EU and the United States. Notaries depend on US companies like Microsoft for their daily activities. Given the lack of equivalent European companies, these US companies are crucial for business continuity. In the absence of an adequacy decision or a framework allowing the use of such companies, notaries should use standard contractual clauses, which require an impact assessment of the data transfer. This process is often too costly or impractical for this sector, as most notarial offices are small or medium-sized enterprises that do not have the resources to carry out such analyses. With regard to an issue directly linked to the July 2023 adequacy decision, we can highlight the complexity of identifying the companies to which a transfer is authorised. This is not just a matter of finding their name on the EU-US Data Transfer List, but also of ensuring that the planned transfers fall within the purposes mentioned on the list. And these are not always easy to identify. It would also be very useful to move towards a broader framework, as much as possible in line with the former Privacy Shield.
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Meeting with Emil Radev (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

18 Jul 2023 · upgrading the use of digital tools and processes in company law

Meeting with Marie Frenay (Cabinet of Vice-President Věra Jourová), Simona Constantin (Cabinet of Vice-President Věra Jourová)

1 Mar 2023 · Company law

Response to Administrative and technical aspects of the transfer of the e-CODEX system to eu-LISA and its maintenance

2 Dec 2022

The Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) is the official body representing the notarial profession in dealings with the European institutions. The CNUE brings together the notariats of the 22 EU Member States familiar with this institution. The CNUE is convinced of the added value of e-CODEX for the digitalisation of cross-border judicial cooperation in the European Union. The e-CODEX Regulation constitutes an important element in this regard and will contribute to enhance the digitalisation process, as it lays down a stable basis for the management of the e-CODEX system and thus its sustainability. As a long-term partner of the e-CODEX pilot project, the CNUE shall be honored to share its expertise in the field of digitalisation and to contribute to the deployment of the e-CODEX system through a membership in the advisory group on e-CODEX according to article 12 of the e-Codex Regulation. Finally, the Notaries of Europe underline the importance of setting up such an advisory body as soon as possible.
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Meeting with Emil Radev (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

14 Jun 2022 · AML

Meeting with Alin Mituța (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

2 Jun 2022 · European Digital Identity proposal (eID)

Meeting with Ana Gallego (Director-General Justice and Consumers)

16 May 2022 · role of notaries, digitalisation of justice, civil matters, rule of law

Response to Digitalisation of cross-border judicial cooperation

8 Mar 2022

The Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) is the European umbrella organisation representing 22 national Notary Chambers and more than 45,000 notaries. The CNUE is following with great interest the preparative work and the publication on 1 December 2021 of the European Commission 2021/0394 (COD) proposal for an “e-Justice Regulation” on the digitalisation of cross-border judicial cooperation. The CNUE welcomes this initiative and is willing to take part as an active stakeholder in the negotiations and in the implementation of the regulation, ensuring that the expertise and the special features of the notarial function are duly taken into account. The CNUE and its Member Notariats already have considerable expertise in electronic communication, both on a national level where electronic communication is commonplace but also in a cross-border context through various CNUE IT projects. It is time to enable electronic communication also across borders in Europe. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that the digitalisation of judicial procedures might render judicial systems more resilient to some extent and that the removal of barriers to communication might have a positive impact on the day-to-day life of citizens and businesses. The decentralised IT system has the potential to make cross-border communication of notaries with other competent authorities as well as natural and legal person easier and faster. Both citizens and public administration/justice authorities, however, will only trust IT systems developed at the highest technical level by a public entity and which have proven to be absolutely secure. Barriers outside the field of law are harder to find than barriers, which are based on law. The digitalisation of cross-border procedures must not lead to a reduction in legal certainty. Therefore, all new measures should be designed to guarantee the highest possible level of legal certainty for all parties involved. For this reason, we welcome the choice made by the legislator in favour of a voluntary digital channel for natural and legal persons. We also appreciate that the purpose of the e-Justice framework is to set up a mere communication channel and that it shall not affect the national provisions in place as to the form and the security standards for documents. We also understand that the competencies conferred to national authorities by EU law and by national law are preserved in the context of the e-Justice Regulation. This is of utmost importance for legal certainty. Finally, it is important to see technology as an additional service tool. The aim is to implement lasting legal solutions that take all interests into account as far as possible, and thus ultimately create legal certainty. Speeding up and simplification are key words in the context of digitalisation. Although improving processes is certainly a goal, speeding them up must not be the top priority. The focus should remain on individual advice, protection against overreaching and the drawing up of contracts that meet the individual needs of the client. Technology should not be an end in itself; the choice should be based on the respective project requirements and not on current trends. For instance, when it comes to vulnerable people and people with few digital skills, there should always be a paper-based alternative.
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Response to European Digital Identity (EUid)

26 Aug 2021

Please find attached the Council of the Notariats of the European Union's (CNUE) feedback containing a request for additional security measures and a suggestion for a wording under the new proposal.
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Response to List of data for the exchange of information between Member States in company law procedures for cross-border operations

20 Apr 2021

Please refer to the CNUE feedback on the draft regulation in the attached paper.
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Meeting with Geneviève Tuts (Cabinet of Commissioner Didier Reynders)

31 Mar 2021 · - DG GROW initiative to update the indicator of restriction of professional services - Digitalisation of justice and Blockchain - Protection of vulnerable adults - Civil matters concerning succession and family law

Response to Digitalisation of cross-border judicial cooperation

5 Feb 2021

The Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) has taken due note of the publication of the Communication on Digitalisation of Justice in the European Union by the European Commission on 2 December 2020 and, more recently, of the Inception Impact Assessment on digitalisation of cross-border judicial cooperation. The CNUE is convinced that digitalisation can contribute to offer a better service to the citizen, for example in the field of company law (incorporation of companies online, meetings by videoconference). Citizens and businesses should have a simple and effective access to justice and the Notaries of Europe support this approach. Notaries all over Europe are actively developing technologies to simplify the secure communication between the notaries, public registers and clients via electronic channels and to provide their clients with effective solutions for the archiving of their documents and for smooth and secure access to documents. The cross-border context is having an increasing impact on notarial activity.The Notaries of Europe agree with the findings of the Inception Impact Assessment to the extent that digitalisation is key and that some issues still have to be tackled in order to ensure that cross-border exchanges can be carried out safely and securely by digital means. The CNUE intends to contribute actively to the legislation process and will submit a contribution to the public open consultation on digitalisation of cross-border judicial cooperation which is announced for Q1/2021. We invite you to take due note of the detailed contribution attached.
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Response to Digitalisation of justice in the European Union

24 Sept 2020

The Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE), which represents the civil law notariat of 22 EU Member States, has taken note of the European Commission’s roadmap for the digitalisation of justice. The 45.000 notaries in Europe and their 200.000 collaborators draw up authentic instruments and some of them use a fully electronic authentic instrument and further completely dematerialised procedures on a daily basis. As driving force in various European e-Justice projects, the European notariat joins the efforts and priorities of the European Commission to engage in the digital transformation process. The CNUE is convinced that the use of new technologies can contribute to offer a better service to the citizen, for example in the field of company law. Notaries all over Europe are actively developing technologies to simplify the secure communication between the notaries, public registers and clients via electronic channels. At the same time, is has to be guaranteed, that legal certainty and the quality of preventive legality control within the justice system as well as the reliability of public registers (such as business registers, land registers and registers for mortgage and pledge) will not be impaired. The notarial profession is continuously working on the facilitation for citizens while ensuring legal certainty for all parties involved all over Europe and is capable to adapt in a changing world without losing its essence and ability to contribute to mentioned goals. Various notarial activities can already take place remotely, for example the identification by digital means, the signature, archiving and (dematerialised) communication between notaries and/or between notaries and clients. The communications between the notariat and judicial authorities are often organized in a dematerialized way, for example the keeping and consultation of public registers and the making of entries in public registers which are either held by the notariat or the State. Some of the registers held by the notariat are interconnected at European level. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the CNUE member notariats have continued to offer the public service to their clients, being considered as an essential public service of systemic relevance during the lockdown. The clients’ requests have been met. The digitisation of the search for wills made it possible to continue the activity during the lockdown. Indeed, in terms of the ENRWA's figures, we did not note any shortcomings in the provision of the query/answer service. Against this background, the European notariat was honoured to contribute to the survey the European Commission had organized with the aim of taking stock of the level of digitalisation of the notarial profession in the Member States. The CNUE is available to complement the answers which have been provided and to provide any clarifications, if needed. The CNUE would also like to stress the usefulness of the e-justice portal, not only for legal practitioners, but also for businesses and citizens. The CNUE hopes that the publication of multilingual content on the national law of the Member States will be continued. Particular emphasis should be placed on updates. The CNUE would like the level of European co-funding of e-Justice projects to be maintained. The CNUE calls on the European institutions to favour the approach of interoperability between national systems rather than building complex European systems in governance and maintenance. The European notariat is particularly following the public discussion about artificial intelligence. Its use in the world of Justice should be the subject of particular attention by the European legislator. Finally, the CNUE would ask the European Commission services to be consulted in the context of the elaboration of the future communication on the digitalisation of justice.
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Response to Report on the application of the General Data Protection Regulation

29 Apr 2020

On behalf of the Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) we would like to stress the following elements in response to the feedback period on the GDPR which has been opened by the European Commission: o Rights of individuals: - Article 14: difficulty in applying this text Particularly 5.b) on the limits to the right to information, which is very difficult for practitioners to assess, especially the notion of information made impossible. Need for clarification on this point o Transfer of data outside the EU: - SCCs not updated: the model contracts for the transfer of personal data adopted by the European Commission in 2001, 2004 and 2010 have been awaiting an update since the GDPR’s entry into force. - Obligation to inform: difficulty in complying with the obligation to inform data subjects about the country concerned with regard to the location of technical data Little information given by subcontractors – framework contract impossible to negotiate o Data actors - Classification as subcontracting data controller – joint data controller - Subcontractor’s obligations Art 32: an obligation to implement technical and organisational measures guaranteeing a level of security appropriate to the risk applies to the subcontractor Art 25: the subcontractor is not subject to privacy by design nor to privacy by default. Recital 78 provides only for an incentive to implement these principles. In practice, it is very complicated to negotiate with subcontractors on this point. It is requested to delete recital 78 We remain at your disposal for a discussion on the points raised by the European notariat and would be glad to discuss the topics with the European Commission services.
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Meeting with Antoine Colombani (Cabinet of First Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

7 Jul 2015 · Better Regulation

Meeting with Věra Jourová (Commissioner)

24 Jun 2015 · Civil law, Civil justice files

Meeting with Renate Nikolay (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)

11 Mar 2015 · Company law

Meeting with Paraskevi Michou (Acting Director-General Justice and Consumers)

5 Feb 2015 · Public documents/e-Justice/Single member company

Meeting with Simona Constantin (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)

3 Feb 2015 · Presentation of the civil justice priorities