The way Forward: A Roadmap for the European Union

The contributions describes the final Road Map for the realization of the harmonized framework on Electronic Evidence Treatment and Exchange. It is against a complex background that this "Roadmap" needs to be understood as it takes all challenges, including legal, operational, technical and data protection, forward and proposes ways to take action on a national and on a European level while taking into account various important aspects such as the actors involved. It is important to reiterate that no one action alone will solve the ensemble of challenges as regards the collection, preservation, use and exchange of electronic evidence. The actions need to be taken together for changes to be more effective. The Roadmap is aimed at showing the way forward for creating a Common European Framework for the systematic, aligned and uniform application of new technologies in the collection, preservation, use and exchange of evidence in criminal proceedings.