The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU has reached on Tuesday 13 December another agreement this week: one with the European Parliament on the regulation establishing a collaboration platform for Joint Investigation Teams (JITs). The text is part of the ‘modernisation of justice’ package (see EUROPE 12844/12).
An agreement was quickly reached after only two inter-institutional negotiation meetings (‘trilogues’) on this regulation which creates an online exchange platform for JITs. The report by Malik Azmani (Renew Europe, Dutch) was adopted unanimously in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in October (see EUROPE 13039/4).
The European Parliament welcomed the fact that international judicial authorities could participate in the online platform, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC). They are also pleased to have shortened the time to the start of operations of the platform to two and a half years.
“Through this collaborative platform, we will facilitate cooperation between judicial authorities and JITs to fight crime in Europe”, Mr Azmani said.
A JIT was launched in March on war crimes in Ukraine and now includes seven countries (see EUROPE 12920/3, 13042/8). The ICC is also participating in this joint investigation.
The EU Council wants the agreement to be validated by the Member States as early as 20 December, according to a source close to the dossier. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)