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Helen Aaremäe-Saar representing .EE at the European Commission’s e-evidence Working Group 

Among the participants is Helen Aaremäe-Saar, representing the interests of Estonian Internet Foundation and .ee registrars. Her participation ensures that Estonia’s technical expertise and practical experience are part of shaping how the new rules will work in real life.

The focus of the working group has now shifted. While earlier discussions centered on the content of the regulation itself, attention has moved toward defining the technical requirements of the system that will make cross-border data exchange possible.

At the core of the e-Evidence framework is a simple, but demanding objective: enabling efficient and secure exchange of electronic evidence needed in criminal investigations between all EU Member States. For example, a situation may arise where the .ee registry or a registrar receives a legally valid request from a German prosecutor. The system must allow such data to be transmitted securely and reliably, without requiring the service provider to independently verify the prosecutor’s authority. The aim is to create a trusted, standardized mechanism that ensures legal certainty while reducing unnecessary administrative steps.

Today’s meeting reviews how prepared Member States are with their national technical solutions and how they plan to connect to the European framework. An important question concerns the role of service providers, including the .ee registry and registrars, who will be subject to the regulation. These providers are required to comply with the e-Evidence rules, but crucially, they will not need to develop their own separate technical systems.

Instead, data exchange will take place through a central IT system established by the European Commission. Member States must integrate with this system at the national level. Authorized representatives of service providers will then receive and transmit evidence related to criminal proceedings through this unified platform.

This centralized approach is designed to ensure consistency, security, and efficiency across the European Union. The EU e-Evidence Regulation will apply from 18 August 2026. However, the obligation to actively use the technical system will only take effect one year after the adoption of the necessary implementing acts.

In practical terms, this means that the technical framework must first be formally finalized before its use becomes mandatory. The current phase of expert discussions is therefore critical: it lays the groundwork for how the system will function across all Member States.

More information about the e-Evidence framework and the work of the Commission’s expert group is available on the European Commission’s website: https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/internal-security/cybercrime/e-evidence