Brussels, 06/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU15 Justice Ministers approved, on Thursday, the creation of the judicial cooperation network, Eurojust. French Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu welcomed this decision as a "hinge element in the construction of the European judicial area, which will allow magistrates to have elbow room". Eurojust will be a unit for the cooperation of European magistrates, composed of one magistracy (prosecutor, judge, police officers with prosecuting powers) for each member country, in the aim of facilitating contacts, cooperation between magistrates, and the discovery of links between affairs in progress in different countries. The Eurojust scope of powers is broad: the infringements covered by the Europol Convention, computerised crime, fraud and corruption, money laundering, crime to the detriment of the environment, participation in criminal organisations, and any other infringement committed in liaison with one of these infringements. Its powers will be practically without limit for serious crimes, because the unit may have to work on any other kind of infringement, on the request of a judicial authority of a Member States. The European Council of Tampere had fixed end 2001 as the deadline, now reached, for the creation of Eurojust. A pro-Eurojust provisional unit has been working since the month of March. The French minister pointed out that the Fifteen had reached an agreement for Eurojust to enter into function and replace pro-Eurojust two months after the adoption of the definitive decision (which must await several parliamentary reviews), which should be "about the beginning of next year". Some speak of February or March while others stress that it will at any rate be during the first half of next year. We recall that the location of the Eurojust seat should be decided at the Laeken Summit.
The ministers rapidly resolved the last outstanding issues, in conformity to the results of the last preparatory work. Except for the salaries of the national members and of their assistants, the Eurojust budget will be borne by the Community budget. The Commission is fully involved in the work of Eurojust, although this does not concern the operational activities, but rather counselling. Each will have access to data concerning it, under certain conditions (access is refused if this compromises any investigation under way). The linguistic regime will be that applied in all European institutions. The statute of the personnel will be that of the officials and other agents of the European Communities. For information exchange with organisations or third countries, the Fifteen agreed on the solution of a "comparable level" for data protection in these countries or organisations, this clause being intended to facilitate the conclusion of a cooperation agreement with the United States, which has a different system, but which can be considered of "a comparable level".