Brussels, 28/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - As Justice Ministers were agreeing on Thursday on the broad outlines of the creation of the Eurojust legal cooperation unit (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.11), the fifteen members of the provisional Eurojust unit (pro-Eurojust) were meeting at the same time and in the same place. Michèle Coninsx, Belgian Public Prosecutor and acting President of pro-Eurojust, was presenting the balance sheet of the unit's work (it has been in operation since 1 March) which, according to the French Justice Minister, Marylise Lebranchu, has broadly predetermined the final version of Eurojust. The fifteen magistrates (thirteen public prosecutors, an Austrian judge and a Finnish police officer) of pro-Eurojust who are responsible for facilitating legal co-operation, have dealt with 130 cases involving two or more Member States, including 18 cases of terrorism, 18 money laundering cases, 16 cases of drug-trafficking, 14 cases of fraud, 9 murders, 8 cases of corruption, 8 cases of theft, vehicle trafficking, tax evasion, arms trafficking, child pornography, bankruptcy, and more.
The magistrates meet up three times a week in Brussels to work on facilitating legal co-operation, but also do marketing work to raise awareness among the judges in each Member State of their existence, explained the pro-Eurojust President, who feels that it is vital to establish confidence. When asked about the fact that a judicial authority can refuse to aid pro-Eurojust (as will also be the case for the definitive Eurojust), the President explained that their role was to oil the workings of the system, rather than to oblige an authority to cooperate. To preserve confidentiality, no details were given about the cases that had been processed or about the level of co-operation provided by different Member States. As requested by the special JHA Council last week, pro-Eurojust has taken steps to organise a meeting between European anti-terrorist judges and a meeting with the US justice authorities.
The members of pro-Eurojust also advise the experts who are working on setting up the definitive Eurojust. Negotiations over where the unit will be based have not yet been officially launched (but Brussels, The Hague and Luxembourg have been mentioned), the pro-Eurojust President argues that the best solution from a practical point of view is Brussels, since it provides a series of benefits for both the magistrates and the police officers who contact pro-Eurojust, although she recognised that other options were on the table.