On Monday 25 April, the European Commission published its proposal to amend the 2018 ‘Eurojust’ Regulation. This revision aims to enable the EU Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, Eurojust, to collect, preserve and share evidence of war crimes. Eurojust’s current mandate does not allow for such actions. The agency only has a management system for working documents related to an investigation, but not for personal data.
The war in Ukraine makes it difficult for war crimes investigators to store and secure evidence. The Commission is therefore proposing to set up an automated data management and storage system, independently of the management system it already has. The Commission also specifies that this new system will have to comply with the highest standards in terms of data protection and cyber security, given the sensitivity of the data concerned.
The revision of the regulation will also allow data such as video, audio or satellite images to be processed and shared with the relevant national and international authorities. However, it is not the intention to give Eurojust an executive role in investigations, which remains in the hands of the competent national or international authorities. This mandate will, on the other hand, enable it to support and assist them.
The Commission estimates that 16 additional posts would be needed to implement Eurojust’s modified mandate. This includes judicial cooperation experts, lawyers, linguists, analysts, legal experts, IT security officers and liaison officers with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and civil society organisations. These posts should be filled as soon as possible, according to the Commission.
The new evidence collection and storage system will primarily benefit the Joint Investigation Team set up in March between Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine and supported by Eurojust (see EUROPE 12920/3).
The agency also announced on 25 April that the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, was joining the Joint Investigation Team. The agreement signed by the Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian Prosecutors General and Karim Khan is the first of its kind. The ICC Prosecutor General’s Office has never before participated in a Joint Investigation Team.
See the proposed regulation change: https://aeur.eu/f/1cp (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)