Brussels, 28/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 25 July, EU justice ministers obtained a political agreement aimed at reinforcing the powers of Eurojust members, the European Union's legal cooperation body. It also obtained an agreement on the extension of the European Legal Network's powers on criminal legal matters. During a press conference in Brussels, the French justice minister, Rachida Dati declared that this development constituted “two major successes” for Europe. The Eurojust agreement will help strengthen judicial cooperation in Europe, as part of the fight against serious crime. José Luis Lopes da Mota, the president of Eurojust welcomed this, “significant step towards the construction of a European area of criminal law”. This will help promote the transmission of information between member states and Eurojust. This information-sharing is even obligatory during cases involving at least three member states. A crisis unit, open 24 hours a day, will be set up at Eurojust, which will also assist autonomous bodies, particularly in drug trafficking cases. Liaison magistrate posts will be set up in third countries and the link between Eurojust and the European Legal Network will also be enhanced. Strengthening the European Legal Network is aimed at facilitating cooperation and the exchange of information between the 200 contact points in the different member states. These contact points permanently provide information to national legal authorities in the fight against fraud, swindling and the trafficking of human beings.
Ministers also examined the ECRIS project providing a criminal record interconnection in the EU27. This cooperation instrument is indispensable in helping develop a European criminal record link-up. Two other decisions are essential if this objective is to be attained. The first, a framework decision, was adopted during this Council and aims at taking previous convictions into account during new criminal proceedings. This aims to determine the conditions (during criminal proceedings against someone) in which previous convictions were reached in another member state where the person had committed their misdemeanours. The other framework decision, which is due to be adopted by the end of the year, focuses on information exchange on national criminal records. According to this proposal, all nationals convicted in any EU member state will have their convictions registered in their national criminal record. Both ministers of the interior and ministers of justice sent the Commission the “Future Group” report on legal affairs, as a contribution towards elaborating the next multiannual programme on legal cooperation. (B.C/trans/rh)