“Not a single euro will be lost, especially not due to poor administration or lack of coordination”, warned EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders regarding the various investigations into war crimes in Ukraine that have been launched in the Member States. He was attending the informal meeting of Justice Ministers in Prague on 12 July.
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a representative of Eurojust and the Ukrainian Minister of Justice, Denys Maliuska, took part in the discussions over a working lunch on war crimes. On his arrival at the meeting, Mr Maliuska stressed the need to hold the leaders behind the war crimes in Ukraine, “the major figures”, accountable, even without their participation in the trial, if necessary.
The Ukrainian minister raised the idea of a separate tribunal to punish the Russian leadership. However, for Europe, the first priority is to ensure effective evidence gathering and then to use the existing tools and courts to prosecute those responsible.
Coordination between investigations in the EU
The Commissioner, but also the Czech Minister of Justice, Pavel Blažek, stressed the need to coordinate judicial efforts in the Member States as much as possible. “Today I called all Members states to ensure Eurojust is kept up to date with their investigations, and secondly, to make use of the evidence stored by Eurojust. It will be possible for all prosecutors to use evidence stored by Eurojust”, Reynders stressed after the meeting.
While 14 Member States have initiated investigations into war crimes in Ukraine, only five Member States are participating in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) established in March (see EUROPE 12962/6, 12929/3). He therefore also called on Member States that have initiated investigations to join the existing JIT. Several ministers have sent positive signals in this regard, but it is ultimately the prosecutors who decide whether to join or not.
On the confiscation of Russian assets and their use, Didier Reynders said that in October this year he would propose a directive establishing minimum penalties for individuals and entities that do not comply with EU sanctions. This follows the positive reception in Parliament and EU Council on the extension of the list of European infringements, to sanctions violations (see EUROPE 12988/3, 12983/15). This initiative will also allow for the confiscation of frozen Russian assets.
Digital judicial cooperation with third countries
For the first time, the ministers discussed the potential for judicial cooperation with third countries using digital tools. “In the EU we have the e-CODEX system but other organisations use different solutions. This situation raises interoperability questions. And this might become more important in the context of criminal investigations in Ukraine in the future”, explained Didier Reynders.
In this respect, feedback was provided by Moldova and Georgia, who were invited to the discussion table. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)