EU: EUROJUSTan EU public prosecution system
01 June 2000
EU Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) ministers are set to approve the creation of a European prosecutions unit - "Eurojust". It will be located in the Hague alongside Europol and will coordinate criminal cases with investigating and prosecuting officials from the member states, Europol and other agencies. The measure raises the long-term prospect of Eurojust one day bringing public criminal prosecutions for trial at the European Court of Justice. The Eurojust "unit" is being created on the back of well-documented problems in prosecuting international organised crime cases. However, its mandate is tied to the increasingly broad EU definition of "organised crime" which already goes well beyond the traditional concept of gangsters, Mafia's and traffickers.
A short history?
Eurojust is credited as a "Tampere initiative" (called for in paragraph 46 of the EU's October 1999 summit conclusions). Discussions on the Eurojust proposal can be traced to a working document in February 1999 on the implementation of the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty posed the following question:
"Is the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor's Office and a penal competence of the European Court of Justice the long-term objective... ?"
According to the minutes of the Europol Working Party of May 1999, "The idea of an European Prosecutors Office was at this moment rejected by all delegations". Nevertheless, nine-months later, the Portuguese presidency had tabled "Exploratory thoughts concerning Eurojust" (the question of giving a penal competence - sentencing powers - to the ECJ is far more contentious and will certainly not progress so rapidly).
Eurojust builds on earlier EU legislation which also provides a workable structure within which the unit will operate. In 1996 an EU Joint Action created a "framework for the exchange of liaison magistrates" which served as guidelines for member states to make bilateral or multilateral arrangements for the exchange of their officials in order to enhance cooperation "by establishing direct links [between] competent departments and judicial authorities". Two years later the liaison magistrates were given a more formal role as the European Judicial Network (EJN) was created.
Paving the way: the European Judicial Network
The EJN has contact points in every member state, meets twice a year, has its own dedicated telecommunications network and is soon to be given its own permanent secretariat. Contact points informally expedite requests for assistance in criminal investigations or prosecutions (international judicial orders or "letters rogatory") and the network provides up to date information on the different procedures and laws in the member states. Meetings of the EJN cover EU policy on judicial cooperation, international criminal case studies and the development of practical cooperation. The EJN is to be further developed under the EU's "strategy for the prevention and control of organised crime", an action plan adopted in March of this year. Recommendation no 24 (of 39) states:
"The European Judicial Network should be implemented effectively and, where appropriate, further developed, for example by exploring ways in which to equip it with modern tools to make efficient cooperation possible, and ways in which to make it more operational."
In the first of six drafts of the organised crime strategy, this recommendation (then no 49 of 75) originally continued:
"particularly by ensuring that it can contribute in specific cases to the coordination of the investigation and prosecution of international cases... Consideration of closer involvement of the Network should begin in the field of interception of telecommunications and of special investigative techniques."
UK delegates to the last EJN meeting included two officials from the Home Office, two from the NCIS (National Criminal Intelligence Service) and one each from the Customs and Crown Prosecution services.
Legi