Ádám Tóth becomes the new President of CNUE

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On Friday 8 January, the Hungarian notary Ádám Tóth took office as President of the Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) for the year 2021. He succeeds the Greek notary Georgios Rouskas and now represents the 22 EU notariats and the 45,000 notaries in Europe.

Important deadlines await the CNUE in 2021, in the difficult context of the COVID-19 pandemic. CNUE will follow closely the developments of the national recovery plans to be presented by the governments of the Member States. It calls for genuine consultation between the European and national institutions and the actors concerned on the ground, in order to maintain the high level of reliability of national justice systems, including, and particularly, in their preventive part.

However, the main issue on the agenda will be the digitalisation of justice. Indeed, the European Commission intends to make digital the default option in cross-border judicial cooperation. A legislative proposal is expected by the end of the year. The CNUE will offer its full cooperation to the European institutions in order to move forward in this direction under conditions of maximum legal certainty in the digital environment.

Furthermore, the CNUE will ensure that it continues its mission of consultation and exchange between notariats on technological developments, particularly through its Futurology Forum. Among the main points, the Hungarian Presidency intends to promote synergies between notariats on purely digital notarial acts, the creation of compatible electronic signatures and the electronic Apostille. A project is envisaged for the use of blockchain technology to verify and record powers of attorney.

The issue of anti-money laundering will be another priority with the publication of a European regulation planned for early 2021. In this area, the CNUE will continue to highlight the exemplary involvement of notaries alongside States in the fight against this scourge.

The training of European notaries will again be an important issue. The European Commission has recently published its new strategy for the period 2021-2024. It proposes to broaden the scope of training to new topics, such as digitisation or artificial intelligence, and to innovative themes and methods. In 2021, following this impulse, the CNUE will start a new training programme and will have an integrated e-learning platform in EU law within two years.

Another “raison d’être” of the CNUE is the monitoring and correct application of EU law by notaries. For example, the Directive on the digitalisation of the business life cycle must be transposed into national law by August 2021. Under the aegis of the CNUE, notariats with competences in the field of company formation will work on innovative solutions for an efficient transposition of the directive. The CNUE will facilitate exchanges between notariats and between notaries, but also with the competent authorities at national level.

A first evaluation of EU Regulation 650/2012 on international successions will also be carried out. This project, called “MAPE Successions”, will be implemented by the CNUE in partnership with the European Network of Registers of Wills Association, the Federal Council of German Notaries, the Hungarian Notarial Chamber, the Lithuanian Notarial Chamber and the Maltese Notarial Council. The project will make it possible to provide qualitative and quantitative information and analyses on the operation and impact of the Regulation for citizens in the Member States where the notary is competent in this area.

For more information on the Hungarian Presidency of the CNUE > Discover