The Commission is strengthening Europol and Eurojust to step up the fight against cross-border crime and terrorism

On 24 June, the European Commission proposed new measures to strengthen the EU’s response to an evolving crime landscape. Crime is becoming increasingly sophisticated, international and digital. To tackle serious crime effectively, the police, customs authorities, prosecutors and the courts must work closely together from the start of an investigation through to the final court ruling.

Today’s proposals cover the entire spectrum of EU support for Member States, from prevention, detection and investigation to judicial cooperation and effective prosecution. The package includes two regulations to strengthen the mandates of Europol and Eurojust, a revision of the European Investigation Order and amendments to the Data Protection Regulation for the Union’s institutions and bodies.

These measures will improve cooperation and complementarity between EU agencies and national authorities, including the police, customs and the courts. They will support more joint investigations, speed up prosecutions and facilitate the exchange of information through a clearer legal framework and a reduced administrative burden.

Europol and Eurojust play a central role in the EU’s response to organised crime networks, terrorists and hostile actors operating across borders, globally and online, and who are increasingly exploiting artificial intelligence. With these proposals, the Commission is delivering on President von der Leyen’s political guidelines and the EU’s internal security strategy, ProtectEU.

Europol: Combating cross-border crime

As the EU’s centre for police cooperation, Europol helps Member States to pool information, expertise and investigations, which is essential for investigating cross-border cases, as no single national authority has a complete picture of current criminal threats.

Under the new rules, Europol will better support Member States by:

1. More efficient and secure information sharing: Faster, automated information sharing will enable real-time collaboration on investigations. Europol will establish a secure, scalable and sovereign cloud infrastructure, as well as a shared police data space, so that investigators can work together — virtually — on joint cases.
2. Greater operational support for Member States: Europol support offices will be set up in Member States, staffed by police officers who have previously worked at Europol. This will ensure better use of Europol’s support and tools (for example, in forensic and data analysis and by facilitating access to Europol’s systems).
3. A technology and innovation centre that will, for the first time, provide an EU-wide overview of law enforcement capability needs. It will also support Member States’ investment injoint research and development. This will help Member States to invest jointly in critical technologies and ensure access to advanced capabilities. The tools developed will be made available to Member States’ law enforcement authorities through the European Police Data Sharing Space.
4. Closer cooperation with EU agencies and bodies (in particular with Eurojus tand the European Public Prosecutor’s Office).
5. Strengthening international cooperation with partner countries to jointly tackle global cross-border crime.

By automating processes and pooling shared resources, these proposed measures will streamline workflows, reduce the administrative burden on Member States and lead to administrative savings and efficiency gains for the Agency and for Member States.

Eurojust: Greater support for prosecutors and judicial authorities

The new mandate will significantly strengthen Eurojust’s capacity to support national authorities. It strengthens Eurojust in the following key areas:

1. Enhanced capabilities and operational support: Eurojust will be able to act on its own initiative to identify links between cases, anticipate and decide on the need for coordination, help resolve jurisdictional issues and support national authorities at an early stage of the process.
2. Additional support in new areas of crime: Eurojust’s mandate will also be expanded to strengthen its involvement in emerging areas of crime, such as cybercrime, breaches of EU restrictive measures and gender-based violence.
3. Strengthening governance and decision-making: streamlining decision-making through more agile processes, improvements in administrative efficiency and swifter action in urgent and complex cases.
4. An integrated EU criminal justice system: Eurojust will improve and strengthen its cooperation with Europol and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. A new information system will make iteasierto identifyinformationand cases relevant to both Eurojust and Europol.
5. Greater international engagementby enabling engagement with third countries at an earlier stage, making cooperation with third countries more flexible. Closer cooperation will also be possible when financial commitments are required or when liaison prosecutors are seconded to Eurojust.

Strengthening the European Investigation Order and the Data Protection Regulation for the Union’s institutions and bodies

The Commission also proposes to update the European Investigation Order ,a fast-track, standardised procedure for the cross-border gathering of evidence from other Member States in criminal matters. The new rules will facilitate the implementation of the European Investigation Order by clarifying procedures and removing operational challenges.

It also introduces a new European order for remote participation to enable suspects, accused persons and victims to participate remotely in criminal court hearings in a different Member State.

The Commission also proposes to update the Regulation on data protectionin the Union’s institutions and bodies (EU Data Protection Regulation). The revised Regulation will enable more effective cooperation between the EU’s criminal justice institutions and bodies, in particular by extending it to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

 

More information: European Commission