34th Conference of European Civil-Law Notaries – Salzburg, 18-19 April 2024

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The 34th Conference of European Civil-Law Notaries, organised by the Austrian Chamber of Notaries, was held in Salzburg on 18 and 19 April. High-level speakers from the European Commission, the European Parliament and leading international experts offered their contributions and insights to the 200 participants about the following topic: “Europe’s Digital Decade – Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation” .

The CNUE President, Marius Stračkaitis, opened the conference and addressed the pressing matter of artificial intelligence. He mentioned its current use by several European notariats, while reiterating the need for the ultimate decision-making power to remain in the hands of the notaries themselves, which guarantees the preservation of legal certainty.

Artificial intelligence was also at the heart of the discussions of the first panel, entitled “Artificial intelligence: The authenticity factor and the rule of law against the backdrop of growing disinformation”, featuring Renate Nikolay Deputy Director-General for Communications, Networks Content & Technology at the European Commission, Karel Lannoo Chief Executive Office at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and Lukas Mandl Member of the European Parliament.

In the afternoon, a second panel was devoted to the European Commission’s flagship Digital Decade initiative, which sets ambitious targets for 2030 to ensure Europe’s digital leadership. In addition, a final panel aimed to discuss how these developments affect the European Union’s justice policy when it comes to being relevant to citizens in the context of the digitalisation of judicial cooperation and, in particular, the current initiative on inclusion in the protection of adults. Marie Vautravers, Secretary of the European Judicial Network in Civil and Commercial Matters, European Commission, and Evelyn Regner, Vice-President of the European Parliament, contributed to the discussions.