It now looks like a distant memory, but an early summer feeling was in the air on the 21st of June, when the 8th webinar of the LEOS community was held. The webinar centred on the product launch of LEOS Version 5. This latest version of LEOS boasts numerous new features including smart track changes, enhanced performance, a modernised look and feel, improved user experience and accessibility, and easy means for co-drafting capabilities.
The webinar was opened by Mr. Carl-Christian BUHR, Director for Digital Transformation in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Digital Services (DIGIT). He highlighted the pivotal role of LEOS within the broader context of the EU’s digital transformation of law-making and policy development, a formidable but highly necessary and rewarding endeavour. LEOS effectively assists the development of high-quality, structurally correct legislation by teams in a most cost-effective manner.
The EU is not alone in this mission to wanting to digitally transform law-making. Public administrations in the EU and around the globe have similar needs, and LEOS can be a valuable tool. In fact, LEOS is an open-source solution available to all. Illustrating this, the cooperation with Spain on LEOS continues to thrive, and new interests are emerging from unexpected corners, notably from regional and communal levels. Also, several EU institutions and bodies are currently exploring the use of LEOS. This widespread interest underscores the high potential of LEOS (and its underlying standard AKN4EU) to underpin a seamless cooperation across the law-making chain in the European Union.
The European Commission is planning to roll out LEOS [1] for drafting legislative proposals in Ordinary Legislative Procedure on 1st January 2025, and then successively for all acts. This ambitious timeline implies a massive use of LEOS in drafting approximately 10,000 legal acts annually and training many Commission staff in using LEOS.
Fernando NUBLA and Joao NUNES, system suppliers in Mr BUHR’s Directorate at the European Commission, showcased the "new" LEOS, demonstrating, in real-time, some of its many features in scenarios mimicking real-life situations. However, this was just a taste of what LEOS has to offer. For those eager to learn more, we encourage you to browse through the attached slide deck or, better yet, download LEOS from code.europa.eu and try it for yourself. Should you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact via our Service Desk or DIGIT-LEOS-FEEDBACK@ec.europa.eu.
Ms. Cristina STANCIULESCU, LEOS business owner at the General Secretariat of the European Commission, presented the progress made in implementing smart functionalities since the term was first coined in the landmark study “Drafting Legislation in the Era of AI and Digitisation” (see slide deck). Smart functionalities essentially bridge the gap between ‘simple’ editing and ‘actually’ drafting legislation. A recent report setting priorities for the implementation of smart functionalities, documenting in detail their business value and examining their implementability, can be found here. Moreover, she gave a flavour of the very promising results of another study on ‘Proof of Concept of Context-Aware Legal Verification’. A more detailed presentation on this topic is scheduled for our next webinar in early 2025.
At the end of the webinar, we solicited attendees' views on a "Legal Drafting Quality Score," akin to the editing scores available in modern word processors. There was a strong endorsement of the concept and a high willingness to contribute to its design.
We plan to follow up with a series of virtual workshops on this topic. If you are interested in attending or you would like to stay up to date with our recent developments, follow us on Interoperable Europe Portal and subscribe to our newsletter.
[1] Or EdiT as the instance of LEOS is known in the European Commission