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Annual Report 2014
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Austria
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Eurojust, 2015This publication covers the period 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014Catalogue number: QP-AA-15-001-EN-C ISBN: 978-92-95084-98-8ISSN: 1831-4279DOI: 10.2812/23927For enquiries: Phone: + 31 70 412 5000E-mail: [email protected]: www.eurojust.europa.eu
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Eurojust Annual Report 2014
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Eurojusts goal is to stimulate and improve the coordination of investigations and prosecutions and
cooperation between the competent authorities in the Member States in relation to serious cross-border crime
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32014 Annual Report
Table of contents
Note re Eurojust Decision ........................................................................................................................................................................5Acronyms and abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................................................5Foreword .........................................................................................................................................................................................................7Executive Summary .....................................................................................................................................................................................81. Eurojust at a glance / Eurojusts tools ...................................................................................121.1 Eurojust at a glance ................................................................................................................................................................. 131.2 Eurojusts tools ......................................................................................................................................................................... 13
1.2.1 Coordination meetings ...................................................................................................................................................131.2.2 Coordination centres ......................................................................................................................................................171.2.3 Information exchange and the Eurojust CMS ......................................................................................................191.2.4 Eurojust and JITs ..............................................................................................................................................................21
2. Eurojust casework ...........................................................................................................................262.1 Eurojust casework in priority crime areas ................................................................................................................... 272.1.1 Fraud .....................................................................................................................................................................................282.1.2 Corruption ...........................................................................................................................................................................292.1.3 Criminal offences affecting the EUs financial interests (PIF offences) ....................................................292.1.4 MOCGs ....................................................................................................................................................................................302.1.5 Drug trafficking ................................................................................................................................................................312.1.6 Cybercrime ..........................................................................................................................................................................332.1.7 I llegal immigration ..........................................................................................................................................................352.1.8 Terrorism .............................................................................................................................................................................352.1.9 THB ........................................................................................................................................................................................36
2.2 Eurojustassistanceinotherfieldsofcriminalactivity ............................................................................................. 382.2.1 Money laundering ............................................................................................................................................................382.2.2 Environmental crime ......................................................................................................................................................382.2.3 Maritime piracy .................................................................................................................................................................382.2.4 Eurojust Contact Point for Child Protection .........................................................................................................38
OperationBlackShades:Caseoftheyear ....................................................................................................................................... 392.3 Eurojusts partners .................................................................................................................................................................. 422.3.1 Cooperation partner: Europol ....................................................................................................................................422.3.2 Cooperation partner: OLAF .........................................................................................................................................422.3.3 JHA Agencies cooperation .............................................................................................................................................432.3.4 Third States and organisations outside the European Union .......................................................................44
3. Challenges and best practice ......................................................................................................483.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................ 493.2 Drugtrafficking .......................................................................................................................................................................... 493.3 Cybercrime ................................................................................................................................................................................... 514. Eurojust focus of the year: the European Arrest Warrant ..........................................52
5. Eurojusts Administration ............................................................................................................58
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4 2014 Annual Report
6. Eurojust and practitioner networks ......................................................................................626.1 EJN ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 636.2 JITs Network ................................................................................................................................................................................ 636.3 Genocide Network .................................................................................................................................................................... 646.4 Consultative Forum .................................................................................................................................................................. 64 Theme: Evaluation and future perspectives .......................................................................................66
Follow-up to Council Conclusions ..........................................................................................................69
Public access to documents ........................................................................................................................70
Casework 2002 2014 ......................................................................................................................................................................................9Bilateral/multilateral cases 2010 2014 ................................................................................................................................................9Bilateral/multilateral cases per Member State ..................................................................................................................................10Requesting/requested Member States ....................................................................................................................................................10Eurojust at work in 2014 ..............................................................................................................................................................................14Coordination meetings ..................................................................................................................................................................................16Third States, cooperation partners and international organisations involved in coordination meetings ...............16Coordination centres ......................................................................................................................................................................................18Number of Article 13 cases ..........................................................................................................................................................................20JITs supported by Eurojust and the main crime types .....................................................................................................................21Eurojust JIT funding (December 2009 - August 2014) ....................................................................................................................232014 timeline .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 24Eurojust casework in priority crime areas ...........................................................................................................................................27Main crime types involving third States .................................................................................................................................................44Top ten third States in Eurojust casework ............................................................................................................................................45Cases by Liaison Prosecutors 2010 to 2014 .........................................................................................................................................45
Charts and figures:
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52014 Annual Report
Note re Eurojust Decision
EurojustDecisiontheCouncilDecisionof28Febru-ary2002settingupEurojustwithaviewtoreinforc-ingthefightagainstseriouscrime,aslastamendedbyCouncilDecision2009/426/JHAof16December2008onthestrengtheningofEurojustwillbereferredto
Acronyms and abbreviations
CMS Case Management SystemCOSI Council Standing Committee on Internal SecurityEAW European Arrest WarrantEJN European Judicial NetworkENCS Eurojust National Coordination SystemEMPACT EuropeanMultidisciplinaryPlatformagainstCriminalThreatsEPPO EuropeanPublicProsecutorsOfficeJIT Joint investigation teamJSB JointSupervisoryBodyofEurojustMASP Multi-Annual Strategic PlanMLA Mutual legal assistanceMOCG (Mobile) Organised crime groupMPJM Maritime Piracy Judicial MonitorMTIC Missing Trader Intra-CommunityOAP Operational Action PlanOCC On-Call CoordinationOCG Organised crime groupPIF ProtectionofthefinancialinterestsoftheEuropeanUnionSOCTA Serious Organised Crime Threat AssessmentTCM Terrorism Convictions MonitorTE-SAT Terrorism Situation and Trend ReportTFEU TreatyontheFunctioningoftheEuropeanUnionTHB Traffickinginhumanbeings
in this report as the Eurojust Decision. A consoli-datedversionoftheEurojustDecision,preparedbytheCouncilGeneralSecretariatforinformationpur-posesonly,isavailableonourwebsiteat www.eu-rojust.europa.eu.
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Eurojust, as an EU actor, is committed to playing its role as a centre of legal and judicial expertise and to closely
cooperating with all partners involved
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72014 Annual Report
ForewordIt is with great pleasure that I present to you Euro-justs 13th Annual Report. The report provides an overviewofEurojustsdevelopmentsandmainac-tivities,anditscontributionsandsupporttoimprovejudicial cooperation among the Member States in 2014.Eurojustscaseworkisgrowingeachyear,andthis year was no exception.The number of cases for which Member States re-quested Eurojusts assistance increased by 14.5 per centto1804cases.Eurojustsuniquetool,coordina-tionmeetings, brought1882externalpractitionerstoEurojustincludingprosecutors,judgesandpoliceofficerstostreamlineoperations, facilitatecoordi-nation and cooperation in strategic and operational actions,andresolvelegalandpracticaldifficultiesre-sultingfromdifferencesinthe30legalsystemsintheEuropean Union. In addition, coordination centresprovidedeffectivereal-timesupport.
JITs,alongwithcoordinationmeetingsandcoordina-tioncentres,assisttheMemberStatesinthecollectionandconnectionofvitalcase-relatedinformation.Thesetoolsprovidespeedy,results-drivencooperation.Eurojust continues to support the setting up and run-ning of JITs, with the number of JITs supported byEurojust increasing by more than 20 per cent. The number of JITs funded by Eurojust also increasedsubstantially, showing that this tool is being usedmore and more by the Member States.Inthisyearsreport,thefocusisontheEAWaswellas challenges and best practice in drug traffickingandcybercrimecases.Eurojustheldthreeseminars,on drug trafficking, cybercrime and the EAW. The
drugtraffickingseminarwasdedicatedtocontrolleddeliveries, new psychoactive substances and (pre)precursors,thecybercrimeseminartotheadmissi-bilityofevidence,andtheEAWseminartoproblemsandbestpracticeintheoperationoftheEAW.Theseareas raise considerable challenges and difficultiesforpractitioners,andwemustworkcloselytogethertofindeffectivesolutions.
Wealsofocusonacybercrimecase,BlackShades,oneofseveral success stories in 2014. These successes result fromthegreaterrecognitionanduseEurojustisexperi-encing,aswitnessedbytheincreaseincasework.Continued progress is being made in supporting and strengthening coordination and cooperation between the national investigation and prosecution authorities oftheMemberStateswhendealingwithcasesofseri-ouscross-bordercrime,alsowithregardtoenhancingcooperationwiththirdStates.In2014,EurojustsignedacooperationagreementwithMoldova,strengtheneditsrelationshipwiththeJHAAgencies,andsignedtwoMemorandaofUnderstanding,withFRAandEMCDDA.
TheSixthRoundofMutualEvaluationswas finalisedand Eurojust adopted an Action Plan to address the recommendations.In2014,workalsobeganontheex-ternal evaluation. These assessments will contribute totheeffectiveandefficientfunctioningofEurojust.Eurojust welcomed six new National Members and is looking forward to thearrivalof thenewLiaisonProsecutorfromSwitzerlandin2015.
To effectively prevent and fight serious cross-bordercrimeand terrorism, amultidisciplinary approach isessential, based on enhanced information exchangeamongdifferentactorsandincreaseduseoftheavaila-bletools.Eurojust,asanEUactor,iscommittedtoplay-ing its roleasacentreof legaland judicialexpertiseand to closely cooperating with all partners involved.I hope you enjoy reading this report.
Michle CONINSXPresident of Eurojust
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8 2014 Annual Report
Executive Summary
` The number of cases forwhichMember StatesrequestedEurojustsassistanceinfightingseriouscross-border crime increased by 14.5 per cent,from1576casesin2013to1804in2014. ` To support coordination and cooperation between thenationalauthorities,coordination meetings (197), coordination centres (10) and joint in-vestigation teamswereused,andtheparticipa-tion of Europol (98) and OLAF (3) in Eurojustscoordination meetings increased. The number of JITs supported by Eurojust was122,45ofwhichwerenew,beingformedin2014.Eurojustalsofinanciallysupported67JITs. ` An increase in Eurojusts casework can be not-ed in the followingcrimeareas:drug trafficking,fraud,cybercrime,PIFcrimes,illegalimmigration,corruption and money laundering. ` On 266 occasions, Eurojusts assistance was re-quested in the execution of European Arrest Warrants.Inaddition,Eurojustfocuseditsactivi-ties on the EAW and reported on its casework and experience,andorganisedastrategicseminaronthe subject.
` Secure Network Connections were set up with six Member States - bringing the total to 11 con-nections - to facilitate the safe exchange of in-formation. ` Eurojust participated in the development of the2014-2017 policy cycle and the 2015 Operation-al Action Plans. Eurojust also posted a College member at EC3 in July. ` Eurojust organised two strategic seminars in combination with the meetings of the Consulta-tive Forum under the Greek Presidency and the Italian Presidency:
The European Arrest Warrant: which way for-ward? andthe7thmeetingoftheConsultativeForum on 10 and 11 June.
Towards Greater Cooperation in Freezing and Confiscation of the Proceeds of Crime: a Prac-titioners Approachandthe8thmeetingoftheConsultative Forum on 11 and 12 December.
` Eurojust also organised three strategic meetings and one tactical meeting: Annual strategic meeting on terrorism on 4 June and the tactical meeting on terrorism on 5 June. Strategic meeting on drug trafficking on 29-30 September. Strategic meeting, Cybercrime rising to the
challenges of the 21st century, on 19 and 20November. ` Eurojust held a meeting of the Eurojust contactpoints and Liaison Prosecutors on 16 and 17 Oc-toberandthe2ndmeetingoftheNationalCorre-spondentsforEurojuston27November. ` Eurojust published, amongst others, the CBRN-EHandbook,theTCMandtheReportontheStrate-gic Project on Environmental Crime. ` Eurojust also deals in this annual report with the challengesandbestpracticeidentifiedinrespectof controlled deliveries, new psychoactive sub-stances and (pre)precursors, and the gatheringandadmissibilityofevidenceincybercrimecases. ` Eurojust signed a Cooperation Agreement with Moldova on 10 July, and Memoranda of Under-standing with EMCDDA on 15 July and FRA on 3 November.
` Eurojusts budgetfor2014wasEUR33.6million.Budget implementation was 99.82 per cent. ` The Sixth Round of Mutual Evaluations was concludedandthefinalreportwasadoptedbytheCouncil in December. The external evaluation project, in accordancewith Article 41 of the Eurojust Decision, waslaunched in 2014. ` Eurojust published its new Multi-Annual Strat-egy 2016-2018. ` The College in April contributed in writing to the draftEurojustRegulation.TheCounciladoptedthepartialgeneralapproachonthisdraftinDecember.
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Casework 2002 2014
Bilateral/multilateral cases 2010 2014
Closed
Ongoing in 2014
Opened and closed in 2014
Opened and ongoing in 2014
Total
2014201320122011201020092008200720062005200420032002
381
588
770
300202
10831181
1350 1373 1374 13241200
682
1122
376209675122
12
2
1
1804
15761533
144114241372
1193
1085
771
588
381300
202
* Cases involving one Member State and one third State, cooperation partner or international organisation
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
300
112
1392
1255
321309
1224
289
1152
253
1171
1804
15761533
14411424
Articles 3.2 and 3.3 EJD * Bilateral Multilateral Total
92014 Annual Report
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Requesting/requested Member States
Bilateral/multilateral cases per Member State
* The cases registered by the College are not included in the map, only in the table
Bilateral Multilateral
Coll * 5BE 50 16BG 80 1CZ 67 17DK 43 9DE 39 20EE 25 2IE 13 4EL 32 4ES 70 17FR 58 39HR 11 1IT 97 19CY 14 0LV 36 7LT 34 10LU 12 1HU 70 28MT 22 2NL 46 13AT 113 14PL 112 2PT 77 4RO 58 13SI 97 6SK 33 4FI 50 6SE 57 17UK 88 19
50/6
25/2
36/7
112/2
58/13
67/1733/4
70/28
11/197/19
113/14
80/1
32/4
14/022/2
58/39
70/17
77/4
88/1946/13
50/16
12/1
39/20
43/9
57/17
97/6
13/4
34/10
17/52
Requesting Requested
Coll * 5BE 66 131BG 81 72CZ 84 67DK 52 52DE 59 244EE 27 36IE 17 52EL 36 68ES 87 217FR 97 190HR 12 51IT 116 208CY 14 79LV 43 50LT 44 51LU 13 53HU 98 87MT 24 33NL 59 197AT 127 109PL 114 114PT 81 57RO 71 119SI 103 41SK 37 90FI 56 42SE 74 60UK 107 208
56/42
27/36
43/50
114/114
71/119
84/6737/90
98/87
12/51116/208
127/109
81/72
36/68
14/7924/33
97/190
87/217
81/57
107/20859/197
66/131
13/53
59/244
52/52
74/60
103/41
44/51
* The cases registered by the College are not included in the map, only in the table
10 2014 Annual Report
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Michle Coninsx,Belgium Kamen Mihov,Bulgaria Luk Star,CzechRepublic Jesper Hjortenberg,Denmark
Klaus Meyer-Cabri ,Germany Raivo Sepp,Estonia Frank Cassidy,Ireland Nikolaos Ornerakis,Greece
Francisco Jimnez-Villarejo,Spain Frdric Baab,France Josip ule,Croatia Francesco Lo Voi,Italy
Gunrs Bundzis,Latvia Laima ekelien,Lithuania
Lszl Venczl,Hungary Han Moraal,Netherlands Ingrid Maschl-Clausen,Austria
Mariusz Skowroski,Poland Antnio Cluny,Portugal Daniela Buruian,Romania Mali Gabrijeli,Slovenia
Ladislav Hamran,SlovakRepublic Harri Tiesmaa,Finland Leif Grts,Sweden Frances Kennah,UK
Katerina Loizou,Cyprus
Donatella Frendo Dimech,Malta
Olivier Lenert,Luxembourg
Eurojust College of National Members 2014
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Eurojust at a glance / Eurojusts tools
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132014 Annual Report
What? Eurojust is the European Unions Judicial Co-operationUnit.As abodyof theEuropeanUniones-tablished in2002,Eurojusts goal is to stimulate andimprove the coordination of investigations and pros-ecutions and the cooperation between the competent authorities in the Member States in relation to serious cross-bordercrime,particularlywhenitisorganised.AttherequestofaMemberState,Eurojustmayalsoassistinvestigations and prosecutions concerning a particu-larMemberStateandanon-MemberStateifacoopera-tion agreement between Eurojust and the non-Member State has been concluded or an essential interest in providingsuchassistanceispresent.AttherequestofaMemberStateortheCommission,Eurojustmayalsoassist investigations and prosecutions concerning only that Member State and the Community.Who? TheCollegeofEurojust (theCollege) iscom-posedof28NationalMemberswhoareprosecutors,judges or police officers of equivalent competenceseconded by each Member State. National Members are based at Eurojust in The Hague.Most National Members are assisted by a Deputy and/or an Assistant. Eurojust is supported by an Ad-ministrationandhoststheSecretariatsoftheEurope-anJudicialNetwork(theEJN),theNetworkofExpertson Joint Investigation Teams (the JITs Network) and the European network of contact points in respectof persons responsible for genocide, crimes againsthumanity and war crimes (the Genocide Network). In addition, LiaisonProsecutors fromNorway and theUSAarecurrentlypostedatEurojust.Thetotalnum-berofpeopleworkingatEurojust,includingCollegemembers,isapproximately350.
How? Eurojusts key roles and powers include re-sponding to requests for assistance from the com-petentnationalauthoritiesoftheMemberStates.Inreturn, Eurojust can request Member States to un-dertake the investigation or prosecution of specificacts. National Members carry out Eurojusts mandate tocoordinatetheworkofthenationalauthoritiesateverystageofcriminalinvestigationandprosecution.
Coordination meetings Coordination meetings areauniqueandeffectivetool in judicialcoopera-tion.Theybringtogetherjudicialandlawenforce-ment authorities from Member States and thirdStates,andallowforinformedandtargetedopera-tions in cross-border crime cases. During coordina-
tionmeetings,legalandpracticaldifficultiesresult-ing from differences among the 30 existing legalsystemsintheEuropeanUnioncanberesolved.
Coordination centres Coordination centres play a highlyrelevantroleinoperations, fosteringreal-timesupport during joint action days, coordination andimmediatefollow-upofseizures,arrests,house/com-panysearches,freezingordersandwitnessinterviews.
Joint investigation teamsEurojustprovidesfund-ingandexpertiseforthesettingupandoperationalneedsofJITs.AJITisateamconsistingofprosecutors,judgesandlawenforcementauthorities.EstablishedforafixedperiodandaspecificpurposebywayofawrittenagreementbetweentheinvolvedStates,JITsallow criminal investigations to be carried out much moreeffectivelyinoneormoreoftheinvolvedStates.
External relations Eurojusts work is based on ro-bustrelationshipswithanumberofpartners.Onthebasisofagreements,particularlyclosecooperationex-istswithnationalauthoritiesandEUinstitutionsandpartners: the European Commission; the European Judicial Network (the EJN); Europol; the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF); the European Agency fortheManagementofOperationalCooperationattheEx-ternalBordersoftheMemberStatesoftheEuropeanUnion(Frontex);theEuropeanMonitoringCentreforDrugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA); the European Police College (CEPOL); the European Judicial Training Network(theEJTN); theEuropeanUnionAgency forFundamental Rights (FRA) and international bodies: INTERPOL,Ibero-AmericanNetworkforInternationalLegal Cooperation (IberRed) and theUnitedNationsOfficeonDrugsandCrime(UNODC).Furthermore,Eu-rojust has signed cooperation agreements with Liech-tenstein,Switzerland,theformerYugoslavRepublicofMacedonia,theUSA,Norway,IcelandandMoldova.
1.2 Eurojusts tools
Eurojusts coordination meetings are a unique tool in thefieldofinternationalcooperationincriminalmat-ters.Byprovidinglegalandpracticalexpertise,alongwith material support (e.g. meeting rooms, high-qualityinterpretationservices,travelreimbursementforuptotwoparticipantsperState,accommodation),Eurojust brings together judicial and investigative authoritiesfromMemberStates,andalsofromthird
1.1 Eurojust at a glance
1.2.1 Coordination meetings
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eurojust.europa.eu
Witness interviews
Seizures
House/companyseaches
Freezing orders
Arrests
ACTION DAY
EUROJUSTcoordination
centre
Gathering evidence correctly is important for successful future court proceedings.
3 Coordination centresCoordination centres enable coordination and real-time transmission of information in serious cross-border crimes among national authorities during action days.
10 Eurojust
coordination centres
were held in 2014
2 Joint investigationteams (JITs)Carrying out criminal investigations in one or more of the involved countries.
122 JITs
supported
Law enforcementauthorities
Judges Prosecutors
Fixed time period
Agreementbetween countries
Joint criminal investigations
JITs enable more efficient, affordable and speedier justice
with 1 882prosecutors,
judges &police officers
197 coordination
meetings
1 Judicial coordination meetingsBringing together judicial and law enforcement authorities from Member States and third States.
266cases
14.5%of all casesregistered
Execution of European Arrest Warrants
Eurojust at workEurojustscorebusinessistoassistthecompetentauthoritiesofEUMemberStateswhentheydealwith serious cross-border organised crime.
availability24/7
Preparatorymeeting
Coordinationmeeting
Collegemeeting
28 National Members
InvolvedNational Members
Involved National Members + judicial and/or
police authorities ofinvolved countries
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152014 Annual Report
States, taking a stepbeyond theonce revolutionaryprinciple of direct communication between judicialauthoritiesandfosteringmutualtrust.
Inan informalyetprofessionalworkenvironment,investigators, prosecutors and judges can directlyexchange information about linked investigations,
and,freeoflinguisticbarriers,candiscussandagreeon the spot on strategies to better coordinate inves-tigations(e.g.byplanningacommonactionday,pos-siblysupportedbyacoordinationcentre,bysettingup a JIT, by identifying conflicts of jurisdiction andagreeingonhowtopreventorresolvetheseconflictsbyeventualtransferofproceedings,orbysimplyex-ploring ways to prevent or remove problems in the executionofMLArequestsormutualrecognitionin-struments). In addition to operational issues, legalchallenges are addressed or effectively tackled (e.g.judicialuseof informationexchangedby thepolice,banksecrecyrules,legalcounsellingatinterviews).
Indoingso,thenationalauthoritiesareassistedbyhighlyqualifiedpractitioners,mostof themprose-cutorsandjudgesthemselves,whocanprovidetheexpertise gathered while working at Eurojust and support their national authorities with a compre-hensive analysis of different investigations, whichdrawsthebiggerpictureinwhicheachpieceofthepuzzle fits, showing a previously unsuspected oroverlookeddimensionoftheirwork.
Eurojust,awareof theuniquenessandeffectivenessof this tool, has constantly worked on promotingand improving it. In2014, thenumberof coordina-tionmeetingsheldatEurojustremainedstableafterthesignificantincreaseexperiencedin2011.TheUK,France and Germany were the most requesting Mem-berStates,whiletheNetherlands, theUKandSpainweretheMemberStatesmostoftenrequestedtopar-ticipate. Of the 41 coordination meetings involvingthirdStates,mostmeetingsconcernedtheUSA,Swit-zerlandandNorway.Europolparticipatedin98suchmeetings,OLAFinthreeandINTERPOLinone.
The fact that a slightly smaller number of coordi-nation meetings were held while more cases were registeredatEurojustreflectsEurojustscontinuingeffort topromote and improve this tool, by select-ing the cases for which a coordinationmeeting issuited. The best decision about how to handle a case is sometimes not to organise a coordination meet-ing, because Eurojusts objectives can be achievedthrough less costly options. Atthesametime,whenacoordinationmeetingisnec-essary,organisationalandcost toolsareoftenused,such as: (a) co-chaired meetings in which two Nation-al Desks hold a joint meeting and deal with two linked cases; (b) meetings held by a single National Desk to tackle several related cases simultaneously; and (c) videoconferencing, which in 2014 enabled partici-pants to attend nine coordination meetings.
Case illustration
AnOCGwas suspectedof skimming activi-ties(stealingpaymentcarddatafromPointsof Sale (POS) and cashmachines in differ-ent European States) and fraudulent mon-ey withdrawals using blank cards (made,amongotherplaces, inCambodia, Panama,Ecuador and Colombia). The Romanian Desk at Eurojust organised a coordination meet-ingtoverifyiftheOCGwasactiveinFrance,Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway andSpainand if investigationswereongoing inthoseStates.DuetothefactthattwoRoma-niancaseswerelinked,theinvestigationwasunder some time pressure; to have a suc-cessful prosecution, close cooperation andcoordinationofactionswiththeotherStatesinvolved was important.During the coordination meeting, informa-tion regarding cases in the Member States was exchanged and additional steps were discussedtoenabletheexecutionofMLAre-quests sent by Romania. With regard to the MLArequeststotheUKtolocatethesuspectsandtoconducttelephoneinterceptions,theUK authorities clarified that an additionalMLA request was needed. The German au-thorities explained that a prosecutor needed to open a case in Germany to ensure that the information exchanged at law enforcementlevel could be used in the Romanian court proceedings.That informationwasofvalueto the Romanian proceedings.Atthecoordinationmeeting,Eurojusthigh-lighted themovements of the OCG aroundEurope and those States that had only re-centlybeentargetedbythegroup,underlin-ingtheneedforfurtherinvestigation.The case was ongoing in 2014.
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Organising Involved
BE 12 31BG 1 11CZ 7 16DK 4 8DE 18 35EE 2 6IE 0 5EL 0 3ES 15 39FR 20 33HR 0 3IT 17 16CY 1 3LV 8 10LT 7 11LU 0 5HU 1 12MT 1 2NL 14 52AT 11 10PL 3 15PT 1 3RO 6 21SI 4 11SK 2 8FI 7 14SE 12 10UK 22 40NO 1 9
7/14
2/6
8/10
3/15
6/21
7/162/8
1/12
0/317/16
11/10
1/11
0/3
1/31/2
20/33
15/391/3
22/4014/52
12/31
0/5
18/35
4/8
12/10
4/11
0/5
7/11
1/9
Coordination meetings
Third States, cooperation partners and international organisations involved in coordination meetings
Serbia, 1Interpol, 1
Andorra, 1Chile, 1
Colombia, 1Dominican Republic, 1
Georgia, 1Liechtenstein, 1
Bosnia & Herzegovina, 2
Turkey, 2
Philippines, 2
New Zealand, 2
Indonesia, 2
fYROM, 2
Other, 20
Europol, 98
OLAF,3
USA,14
Switzerland,14Norway,9
Ukraine,6
Australia,4
Canada,4Israel,3
Malaysia,3
16 Eurojust at a glance / Eurojusts tools
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172014 Annual Report
1.2.2 Coordination centresCoordination centres provide a unique opportunity for the real-time exchange of information and cen-tralised coordinationof the simultaneous executionof, inter alia, arrest warrants and searches and sei-zuresindifferentStates.Coordinationcentresexpe-
Case illustration
TheBelgianauthoritiesinvestigatedanOCGoperatinginBelgium,Bulgaria,theNetherlandsandRomania.TheOCGallegedlycommittedfraudona largescale, includinginfringementofsocialsecurity law.Since2007,approximately100RomanianworkershadbeenillegallyemployedbyDutchandRomaniannationalsintheBelgianconstructionsector,withacarouselofBelgianandBulgariancompaniesinvolved.SeveralBel-gianconstructioncompaniesweresuspectedofusingtheseRomanianworkersinviolationoftheprohibi-tiononthetemporaryplacementofemployees.TheRomanianworkerswerefictitiouslysecondedbyDutchcompaniesviaBulgarianenterprisesorfalselyregisteredasself-employedinBelgiancompanies.
AttherequestofBelgium,Eurojusthostedtwocoordinationmeetings.DuringthefirstmeetinginMay2013, theBelgianauthorities elaboratedon theongoingBelgian investigation.While several Stateswereinvolvedinthecase,themeetingclarifiedthatinvestigationswereonlyongoinginBelgiumand,accordingly,prosecutionswerenotlikelytotakeplaceinotherStates.Inaddition,theexecutionofaBelgianMLArequesttotheNetherlandswassubjecttomodification.TheDutchauthoritiesclarifiedtheadditionalinformationneeded.TheBulgarianauthoritiesexplainedthatarequestforinformationregardingBulgarianbankaccountsneededtheconsentoftheSupremeCourtpriortoitsexecution,dueto the secrecy rules applicable in Bulgaria.DuringthesecondmeetinginFebruary2014,anassessmentwasmadeofthepracticalandlegalchal-lenges involved in conducting simultaneous interviews and searches in all involved Member States on oneday.OneofthepossiblelegalobstaclesconcernedtheinterviewsintheNetherlandsthatweretobecarriedoutinthepresenceofaBelgianinvestigatingofficer.Thissettinggaverisetoconcernsregard-ingtheconformityofthemeasurewiththecaselawasestablishedbytheEuropeanCourtofHumanRightsintheSalduzcase,andaslaiddownintheBelgianSalduzAct.Accordingtothislegislation,asuspecthastherighttolegalcounselatthefirst(police)interview.
Acknowledgingthepossibleconsequencesofthislegislationontheuseofthetestimoniesasevidence,the participants agreed that an ex officiorequestforthepresenceofa lawyerduringtheinterviewswouldbemadebytheBelgianinvestigatingjudge.Havingassessedthepossibleoutcomeofsimultane-ousactions,theparticipantsalsodecidedtoorganiseacommonactiondayinApril2014andtosetupa coordination centre at Eurojust. Theobjectiveofthejointoperationwastopreventcollusionandthedestructionofevidence,andtostemfurtherlossestotheBelgianandDutchauthorities.Theresultsofthesimultaneousactionswere19housesearches,30searchesatconstructionsitesand42personsinterviewed.
dite the timely transmission of additional informa-tion urgently needed to execute such measures and newly issued MLA requests.Ten coordination centres were set up at Eurojust to supportjointactiondays,andwereorganisedbyBel-gium (1), France (1), Finland (1), theCzechRepublic(1),Spain(2), Italy(2)andtheNetherlands(2),withtheparticipationofotherMemberStates,includingBel-gium(4)andtheUK(4).Europol(9)andtheUSA(2)alsoparticipa-tedinseveralofthesejointactiondays.Thecrimetypestargetedincludedswindlingandfraud,cybercrime,illegalimmigrationanddrugtrafficking.
The College adopted Guidelines on confidentiality and disclosure within the framework of Eurojust co-ordination meetings on 8 April to assist in how to best deal with sensitive legal issues arising during coordination meetings.
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Coordination centres
Organising
Participating
USA, 2
Europol, 9
Third States, cooperation partners and international organisations involved in coordination centres
BE BG CZ DK DE EE IE ES FR IT CY LV LT LU HU NL AT PL RO SK FI SE UKHR
2
1
6
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1
2 2 2 22
2
22
4
4
3 3
3
3
Total: 10 coordination centres
18 Eurojust at a glance / Eurojusts tools
The10coordinationcentresheld in2014,comparedtothesevenin2013,demonstratethegrowingpopu-larityofthisoperationaltoolamongdomesticauthori-tiesandNationalDesksatEurojustinthefightagainstcross-border crime in Europe. These joint operations, involving the national pros-ecutorial authorities, are further confirmation of theaddedvalueofEurojust.
Inadditiontotheirinherentoperationaladdedvalue,co-ordinationcentresmayalsoplayasignificantroleinthedevelopmentofthejudicialdimensionofthecase,par-ticularlyinfacilitatingtheanticipationandtimelyreso-lutionofcomplexlegalissuesarisingpriortoandduringcommonactiondays,suchasthosestemmingfromthedifferentdomesticlegalframeworksofconfiscationandassetseizuresortheproceduralrequirementssetoutatnationallevelfortheexecutionofEAWs.
Case illustration
AnetworkofseveralOCGswasdiscoveredtobeoperatingasophisticatedcarousel fraudschemeinvolvingalcoholicdrinksindifferentMemberStates.AlcoholicdrinksweretradedaroundEuropethroughmirrororphantommovementssanctionedbyfalsifiedelectronicAccompanyingDocuments(e-ADs)toconcealtheirtruefinaldestination,inmostcasestheUK,wherethebeverageswereputonthemarket.Theamountofexcisetaxunlawfullyevadedisestimatedtobetensofmillionsofeuros.
TheItaliancase(OperationCocktail)wasregisteredinApril2013,andinvolvedBelgium,France,Ger-many,theNetherlands,Romania,SpainandtheUK.
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192014 Annual Report
1.2.3 Information exchange and the Eurojust CMS
Development and adoption of polices related to the CMS
TheCMS is a tailor-madedatabase for storingandprocessingcase-relateddata.Itfacilitatesthecoor-dinationworkofEurojust,allowstheaccessingandcross-referencing of data by the involved parties
Thecaseevolvedintwophases.Duringthefirstphasein2013,Eurojustcollectedandanalysedopera-tionalinformationfromnationalauthorities(e.g.customsandlawenforcementauthorities)todetectthe modus operandi andcriminalpatternsoftheOCGsandtopresentpossibleoptionsforthejudicialresponse.Inaddition,EurojustcoordinatedtheissuanceandexecutionofMLArequestsandorganisedtwo coordination meetings.Throughoutthesecondphasein2014,EurojustcoordinatedthejudicialresponseprovidedatnationallevelagainsttheOCGsbyorganisingtwocoordinationcentresthatsupportedtwodifferentjointactiondays,withasix-monthinterval.
ThefirstcoordinationcentreinMay2014followedaseriesofarrests,searchesandseizuresinFranceandGermany,andfocusedontargetsinBelgianinvestigations,resultinginfivearrests,includingtheleadersoftheBelgianOCG.OtherresultswerethefreezingofthreebankaccountsinLatvia,23search-es,andtheseizureofcash,computers,laptops,mobiletelephones,vehiclesandotherhigh-valueitems.ThesecondcoordinationcentreinNovember2014focusedontargetsinItaliancriminalproceedingsandresultedinthearrestof20membersoftheOCGs,includingtheleaders.Thearrestsweremadeonthebasisof14nationalarrestwarrantsexecutedinItalyandsixEAWsexecutedinGermany,Romaniaand theUK. In addition, 30premiseswere searchedand financial and real estate assets (includingseveralbankaccounts),weapons,computers,vehicles,mobiletelephonesanddocumentswereseized.
Theaddedvalueofthiscoordinationcentrebecomesevident ifone looksat thecircumstancessur-roundingtheexecutionofanEAWissuedagainstoneofthemaintargetsinthiscase,anItaliannationalresidentintheUK.AllarrangementsweremadeforhisarrestonUKterritoryduringthejointactionday.However,asthejointoperationsstarted,thecoordinationcentrelearnedthathehadtravelledtoSpainthepreviousnight.Thecoordinationcentrepromptly informedtheSpanishDeskatEurojust,which in turn immediately engaged the relevant Spanish authorities in an attempt to locate the target. TheSpanishauthoritiesactivelysearchedforhim,butthetargetwasnotfound.Intheearlyhoursofthenextday,theUKauthoritieslearnedthatthetargetappearedonthepassengerlistofaUK-boundflightfromSpain,dueto landatGatwickAirport.This informationwasrelayed, throughthecoordinationcentre,totheItalianandSpanishauthorities.Thecyclewasnowcomplete,andthetargetwasarrestedatGatwickAirportuponarrivingfromSpain.
ThechallengesfacedinthiscasewerethecomplexityofthefraudulentschemeappliedbytheOCGs,theirabilitytomovelargequantitiesofalcoholicdrinksacrossMemberStatesalmostundetectedbytheinvestigatinglawenforcementauthoritiesandthedifferentlegalsystemsinvolved.Duringtheco-ordinationcentres,Eurojustsupportedthetimelyandjointexecutionofactionssuchasarrestsandsei-zures,whilerespectingeachMemberStatesownproceduraltimelineandrequirements.Atbothcoor-dinationcentres,Europoldeployedamobileofficeforadditionalon-the-spotsupporttotheoperation.
and facilitatesmonitoring of the lawfulness of theprocessingof personal data. In2014, twoupgradedversionsoftheCMSweredevelopedtoimproveitsop-erational capabilities and usability. In the first half of2014,CMS3.5wasreleasedtoprovideawiderrangeoffunctionsfordatainputandprocessing,andtoincreasecompliance with data protection rules. During the sec-ond half of 2014, a second upgrade, version 4.0,wasdevelopedandtested.CMS4.0,whichisexpectedtobereleasedinearly2015,offersthepossibilityforflexible
-
Number of Article 13 cases
Article 13 No. cases
Article 13(5) JITs 59
Article 13(6)(a) Serious crimes 156
Article 13(6)(b)Involvement of criminal organisation
44
Article 13(6)(c) Repercussions at EU level 20
Article 13(7)(a) Conflicts of jurisdiction 27
Article 13(7)(b) Controlled deliveries 21
Article 13(7)(c)Repeated difficulties in execution of requests
8
Article 13(6)(a),47%
Article 13(5),18%
Article 13(6)(b),13%
Article 13(6)(c), 6%
Article 13(7)(a), 8%
Article 13(7)(b), 6%
Article 13(7)(c), 2%
20 Eurojust at a glance / Eurojusts tools
accesstotheCMSfordifferentusergroupsandcreatesthepreconditionforENCSusersaccesstotheCMS.ItupdatestheautomaticimportingofthesmartArticle13formandimprovestheresponsetimeofthesystem.ThenextCMSversion,CMS4.1,whichwillalsobeim-plementedin2015,includesanimportantupdatetoal-lowtherecordingofdecisionsonthebasisofArticle19oftheRules of procedure on the processing and protec-tion of personal data at Eurojust.Newpolicies,relatedtotheuseandmaintenanceofthe CMS,were agreed by the College in 2014. Theapproachtodataentry,adoptedinJuly,introducedcommonstandardsfordatainputanduniformwork-ing methods to be applied by the National Desks. The holisticapproach,adoptedinOctober,expandedtheconceptoftheCMStoincludecomponentsthathavebeen added to the system during different stagesof its development, and provides the basis for themaintenanceandchangemanagementofthemulti-plesystemcomponentsinaunifiedfashion.
Smart Article 13 form
Article13oftheEurojustDecisionrequiresthenationalauthorities to provide Eurojust with any information
necessaryfortheperformanceofEurojustsoperationaltasks.ThesmartArticle13formisanelectronictem-plate developed by Eurojust to enable the structured transmission of such information from national au-thoritiestoEurojust.In2014,theCollegereviewedtheapplied process and accumulated experience and dis-cussedapossiblewayforwardwiththeimplementationbyEurojustofArticle13oftheEurojustDecision.
The need to make the Article 13 form more user-friendlyfornationalauthoritieswashighlighteddur-ingtheSixthRoundofMutualEvaluations,andrepre-sentedoneoftheoutcomesofthe2ndmeetingoftheNational Correspondents for Eurojust in November2014.Threeupdatedversionsof the formwere is-sued in 2014. The updates allowed Croatia to initiate andimporttheformintotheCMSandintroducedanumberofadjustments inthetextoftheformthatincreased its clarity. Eurojust launched a procedure tosimplifytheformattheendof2014.
Connections between the ENCS and the CMS
WorkcontinuedontheimplementationoftheSecureNetworkConnectionproject in2014.Thisproject fo-cuses on setting up secure network connectivity be-
-
JITs supported by Eurojust and the main crime types
One JIT can deal with more than one crime type.
* Information provided by JITs Network Secretariat
Active from previous years, 77 Signed in 2014, 45
Participation in criminal
organisation, 14
Fraud, 13
Drug trafficking, 11
Money laundering, 7
THB, 7
JITs supported: 122 JITs funded: 67 *
212014 Annual Report
tweenEurojustandeachofthe28MemberStates.TheconnectionswithBelgium,Hungary,Poland,Slovenia,Finland and Swedenbecameoperational, bringing to11thetotalnumberofMemberStateswithanestab-lished and operational secure connection (connections withBulgaria, theCzechRepublic,Latvia, theNether-lands and Romania were already in place). The secure connections allow for the implementation of the re-quirementsarisingfromArticle12(providingtheENCSin each Member State with access to the CMS) and Arti-cle13(exchangeofsmartPDFtemplatesbye-mail)oftheEurojustDecisionandimprovethesafeexchangeofinformationbetweenEurojustandtheMemberStates.
Fiches SudoisesThe Fiches Sudoises provide an overview of the structure and functioning of theENCS by Member State. This tool is regu-larly updated by Eurojust to support ENCS implementationandtheexchangeofexpe-rience andbest practice. SinceNovember,the Fiches include a section providing a collection of available national guidelinesrelatingtotheimplementationofArticle13oftheEurojustDecisionandtothedistribu-tionofcasesbetweenEurojustandtheEJN.1.2.4 Eurojust and JITs
JITsareaneffectiveoperational tool for lawenforce-mentandjudicialauthoritiesinthefacilitationoflegalassistance in cross-border investigations. The ability ofJITmemberstoshareinformationdirectlywithoutthe need for formal requests and to request investi-gativemeasures among themselves directly, and theinvolvementofEurojustbywayofdirectsupportandassistance, have continued to prove highly valuable.In2014,122 JITswere supportedbyNationalMem-bers,45ofwhichwerenewlyformedin2014.National
Members participated either in their capacity as com-petentnationalauthoritiesoronbehalfofEurojustinaccordancewithArticle9foftheEurojustDecision.
Pursuant to Article 13(5) of the Eurojust Decision,Member States shall ensure that National Members are informedof thesettingupof JITsandof there-sults of the work of such teams. Eurojust received
-
22 Eurojust at a glance / Eurojusts tools
59 notifications. Eurojusts assistance included: (i)draftingof JITagreementsorextensions toexistingagreements;(ii)advisingontheEUandinternationallegalframeworksinsettingupaJIT;(iii)providingin-formationondifferentproceduralsystems;(iv)iden-tifyingsuitablecasesfor JITs;(v)organisingcoordi-nation meetings to support JITs; and (vi) providing assistance concerning coordinated action.Coordination meetings organised to facilitate theworkof JITs contributed to the resolutionof recur-ringobstacles,suchas:i)differencesinlegalsystemswithregardtorulesonthegatheringofevidence;ii)admissibilityofevidence; iii)disclosureof informa-tion;andiv)timelimitsfordataretention.
JITshavealsodevelopedintoaswiftandflexibletoolforcooperation with third States. Eurojust provided sup-porttotherunningofsevenJITsinvolvingthirdStates,three ofwhichwere newly created in 2014. Eurojusthelped to overcome legal and practical obstacles that are particularly linked to participation by third States.Recognising the need to reflect on the challenges togreatercooperationwiththirdStates,inJune2014,Eu-rojusthostedthe10thannualmeetingofthenetworkofJITnationalexpertsorganisedbytheJITsNetworkSecretariat.Themeeting,entitledJITs Beyond the EU: Towards a Greater Use of JITs with Non-EU States,fo-cused, inter alia,onthelegalandpracticalaspectsofthesettingupandrunningofJITswiththirdStates,onspecificissuesrelatedtotheexchangeofinformation
Case illustration
In relation to the crash of FlightMH17 inUkraine on 17 July 2014, a JIT betweenthe Netherlands, Belgium, Australia andUkraine,withtheparticipationofMalaysia,wassetupwiththeassistanceofEurojust.The JIT members decided at a later stage that Malaysia would also become a member of the JIT. Eurojusthostedthreecoordina-tion meetings and assisted in i) determining thelegalbasisfortheJITwithrespecttothethirdStatesinvolved;ii)clarifyingtheroleofthird States in their capacity as participants ormembersof the JIT; iii) drafting the JITagreement;andiv)definingtheeligibilityofthirdStatesthataremembersoforpartici-pantsinaJITforfundingviaEurojust.
andevidencewiththirdStates,andonthecontributionby the JITs Network Secretariat to the promotion and developmentofJITswithneighbouringcountries.
Experts agreed on the importance of the assistanceprovided by Eurojust when considering the involve-ment of third States in JITs by identifying suitablecases, initiating and facilitating contact, and provid-inganalysisthatcaninfluencethedecisiontosetupaJIT.Duetothesignificantdifferencesinlegalsystems,theEUmodelagreementonJITsisconsideredbytheexperts to be not completely appropriate in relation tothirdStates,andmayneedsomeadjustments.Theexperts recommended that all Member States imple-ment the Second additional protocol to the 1959 Con-vention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters. The expertsfurtheremphasizedtheimportanceofthese-cureexchangeofinformationwiththirdStatesintheframeworkofJITs.Inthatrespect,thelendingoftech-nicalequipmentbyEurojustallowsasecurechannelofcommunication between JIT parties to be established.The issue of the use of information and evidenceneedstobecarefullyaddressed,especiallyinrelationto third States that enforce the death penalty. Fur-thermore,theJITsNetworkSecretariatshouldfacili-tatetheestablishmentofcontactwithpartners(e.g.Europol,CEPOL,theEJTNandtheSecretariatofthePoliceCooperationConventionforSoutheastEurope)forcarryingouttrainingandraisingawarenessaboutJITsoutsideoftheEuropeanUnion.
Practitioners have evaluated the results achieved,legal issuesandpracticaldifficultiesencounteredatdifferentstagesofaJIT.AnumberofJITevaluationshave been submitted to the JITs Network Secretariat (see Section 6.2).Eurojusts financial support to JIT operations
Eurojust continued providing financial and logisti-calassistancefromwithinitsregularbudgettoJIToperationsbysupporting67JITs,48ofwhichwerenewlyfunded.
SeveralrefinementstotheJITfundingprocedurewereintroduced in 2014, including financial assistance be-ing made available to third States involved in JITs with MemberStates. In thecourseof theyear,Eurojustre-ceived12applications fromJITs inwhich thirdStateswereinvolved.Inaddition,fundingwasgrantedtoJITsset up under legal instruments other than the 2000 Eu-ropean Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters between theMember States of the EuropeanUnionandFrameworkDecision2002/465/JHAonJITs.
-
Eurojust JIT funding (December 2009 - August 2014)
BE BG CZ DK DE EE SIES FR MTCY LV LT LU HU NL AT PL RO SK FI SE UKPT
30
1 1 1
Number of JITs financially supported per Member State
14
19
11
26
23
16
37
1012
6
2
22
6 5
2
9
5
24
11
45
232014 Annual Report
Case illustration
A JITwasestablished todismantle severalOCGsoriginating fromthe formerYugoslavRepublicofMacedoniathatwereengagedintraffickinglargequantitiesmainlyofheroinandcocainetotheNeth-erlands,AustriaandGermany.AsaresultoftheJIT,theactivitiesoftheOCGweresignificantlyreduced.ThecooperationinthiscaseresultedinnumerousarrestsandconvictionsinAustria,Germany,theNetherlandsandtheformerYugoslavRepublicofMacedonia,aswellastheconfiscationofsubstantialamountsofheroin,cocaine,cuttingagents,marijuanaandcash.Eurojust played an essential role in this case by coordinating investigations in the Member States and promotingtheinitiationofinvestigationsandprosecutionsintheformerYugoslavRepublicofMac-edoniaandtheNetherlands.AtotalofeightcoordinationmeetingsoveraperiodoffouryearswereorganisedbyEurojust,whichfacilitateddiscussionsontheongoinginvestigations,thesuitabilityofsettingupaJITandtheactivitiesperformed.ThisformofcooperationwasconsideredprofitableasitremovedtherequirementofMLArequestsbetweentheparticipatingMemberStatesandthethirdState.ItalsoenabledtheauthoritiesoftheformerYugoslavRepublicofMacedoniatoinformthepar-ticipatingMemberStatesoftheresultsoftelephoneinterceptionswhiletheyweretakingplace.SuchpossibilitydidnotexistwhenaregularrequestforMLAwasmade.EurojustassistedindraftingtheJITagreementandprovidedsupportconcerningtheclarificationoflegalrequirementsandadviceonspe-cialprovisionscontainedintheJITagreement.Incollaborationwiththeinvolvedauthorities,EurojustpreparedanoverviewofthesuspectsandthestateofproceedingsintheinvolvedMemberStates.Inaddition,EurojustgrantedfinancialsupporttotheJIT.
-
JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE
timeline
14 February The HagueVisit of MEP Axel Voss, Rapporteur for the Eurojust Regulation
26 February The Hague 35th regular meeting of European Judicial Network (EJN) Contact Points
24 March The HagueEurojust participates in Nuclear Security Summit
21-22 May The Hague16th meeting of the European Network for investigation and prosecution of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes
15-16 MayMarketing seminar in Poland
26-27 MayMarketing seminar in Hungary
11-12 JuneMarketing seminar in France
25-26 June The Hague 10th annual meeting of JIT national experts
10-11 June The HagueStrategic seminar on the European Arrest Warrant
and Meeting of the Consultative Forum
4-5 June The HagueStrategic meeting on terrorism
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JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER
10 July The HagueCooperation Agreement betweenEurojust and the Republic of Moldova
3 November VallettaMoU between Eurojust and the European
Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)
11-12 December The Hague Strategic seminar on the freezing and confiscation of proceeds of crime, and
Meeting of the Consultative Forum
15 July The HagueMoU between Eurojust and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)
19-20 November The HagueMeeting,Cybercrime:risingtothe
challengesofthe21stcentury 21 November BrusselsMedia briefing and presentation of Eurojusts strategic project on Environmental Crime
21 September7th Hague International Day
29-30 September The HagueStrategic meeting on drug trafficking
16-17 October The Hague Meeting of Eurojust contact points and
Liaison Prosecutors: Complementarity,synergies and cooperation
-
Eurojust casework
-
Priority crimeCases Coordination meetings JITs
2013 2014 2013 2014 2013 2014Fraud 449 560 60 60 21 32Corruption 52 55 16 9 3 4PIF crimes 31 70 8 7 1 2MOCGs 257 128 66 13 8 13
Priority crime areas 65%
Non-priority crime areas 35%
Fraud
Drug trafficking
(Mobile) Organised crime groups
PIF crimes
TerrorismIllegal immigration
CybercrimeCorruption THB
Eurojust casework in priority crime areas
272014 Annual Report
Eurojusts operational priorities for the period 2014-2017substantiallymirrortheEUsprioritiesinthefightagainstseriousandorganisedcrime,asprovidedbytheCounciloftheEU,withtheexceptionofillegaltraffick-ing in firearms.However, Eurojusts priorities includecertain crime types that were not set as priorities in the EUpolicycycle,namelycorruption,criminaloffencesaf-fectingtheEUsfinancialinterestsandterrorism.
EMPACT
EachoftheprioritiesagreedbytheCouncilfortheEUfortheperiod2014-2017wastranslatedintoMulti-annualStrategicPlans(MASP)definingthestrategicgoalstoachieve.Inordertoachievethesestrategicgoals,nineEMPACTprojects(oneforeachoftheCouncilspriorities)were launched to coordinate actions by Member States andEUorganisationsagainsttheidentifiedthreats.Onayearlybasis,EMPACTprojectssetouttheirOperationalAction Plans (OAPs) to achieve these strategic goals.Eurojust actively participated in the preparation and draftingoftheOAPsfortheyear2015.Inthisregard,Eu-rojust representatives attended 33 meetings held within allnineEMPACTcrimepriorityareas,includingtheNa-tionalEMPACTCoordinatorsmeetingofNovember(see Councildoc.15930/14),asfollows:facilitationofillegalimmigration; THB; counterfeit goods; excise andMTICfraud;syntheticdrugs;cocaineandheroin;illicitfirearmstrafficking;organisedpropertycrime;andcybercrime.
Eurojustsparticipationinthedevelopmentofthe2015OAPs was guided by the common position adopted by the Collegein2013,whichhadforeseenEurojustsinvolve-ment inthe followingsixareas:cooperationwiththirdStates;financialinvestigations(includingassetrecovery);awareness raising; training; legal/practical obstacles; and increase in coordinated investigations and prosecutions.
2.1 Eurojust casework in priority crime areas
Tackling the proceeds of crime
Eurojustsefforts insupportingpractitioners indeal-ingwithseriouscrimesincludedidentifying,freezing,confiscating and the sharing and return of the pro-ceedsofcrime.
Council Framework Decision 2003/577/JHA of 22July 2003 on the execution in the European Unionof orders freezing property or evidence, and Coun-cilFrameworkDecision2006/783/JHAof6October2006ontheapplicationoftheprincipleofmutualrec-ognitiontoconfiscationorders,areimportanttoolsinensuring that crime does not pay. Each Decision pro-videspractitionerswithastandardcertificate.
TofacilitatetheapplicationofandcompliancewiththeDecisions,Eurojusthasmadeeditable formatsof thecertificatesavailabletopractitionersonourwebsite.
Overall statistics
-
Priority crimeCases Coordination meetings JITs
2013 2014 2013 2014 2013 2014
Drugtrafficking 239 283 56 52 26 31Cybercrime 29 42 10 15 9 6Illegal immigration 25 32 5 10 7 9Terrorism 17 14 3 4 1 2THB 84 71 24 12 15 18
28 Eurojust casework
2.1.1 Fraud
The significant growth in fraud cases continued, fol-lowing a trend that started in 2012.With a total of560cases, fraudcases representalmostone-thirdofEurojustcasesregisteredin2014.Comparedto2013,the number of coordination meetings remained un-changed(60),whilethatofJITsgreatlyincreased(32).
Fraudcasesweremainlyhandledasstand-aloneof-fences (348) or through the generic other types offraudcategory.Ofitssubcategories,themostreport-edareswindling(157)andVATfraud(141).Fraudistypicallyassociatedwithmoneylaundering(83),par-ticipationinacriminalorganisation(48)andforgeryofadministrativedocuments(41).Eurojusts casework shows that the most requesting MemberStateswereHungary,AustriaandSlovenia.TheUK,GermanyandSpainwerethemostrequestedMember States.In addition to its operational casework, EurojuststeppedupitscontributiontoeffortsundertakenatEU level to counter all forms of fraud. Against thisbackground, Eurojust hostedmeetingswith delega-tionsfromtheEuropeanCourtofAuditorstoassesstheeffectivenessoftheEUinthefightagainstcross-borderVATfraud,andwithrepresentativesoftheEu-ropeanCommissionsDirectorateGeneralforHealthand Consumer Protection, DG SANTE (formerly DGSANCO), todiscussmethodsof strengthening coop-eration in theareaof fraudrelated to food,alcohol,pesticidesandthelabellingofproducts.
EurojustworkedwithArcadia International, amem-berof theFoodChainEvaluationConsortium,whichDG SANTE commissioned earlier in 2014 to conduct a study on illegal trade and counterfeiting of pes-ticides and an ad hoc studyon the impactonofficialcontrolsandenforcementactionsofthecurrentlegal
frameworkapplicabletofoodfraud.ThesestudiesareintendedtoassistintheongoingworkoftheCommis-siontostepupthefightagainstfraudulentpracticesinthefoodchainand,inparticular,toassesswhethertherelevantEUpolicyandlegalframeworkaresufficientandeffectiveoriffurtheractionisneeded.
Case illustration
Companies suspected of involvement incomplexVATfraudwereunderinvestigationforseveralyearsbytheGermanauthorities.The German Public Prosecution Offices inCologne and Augsburg sent MLA requests to the Dutch authorities to carry out searches. InaccordancewiththeDutchCodeofCrimi-nalProcedure,acourtdecisionisrequiredtoallowdocumentsseized in theNetherlandsto be handed over to a foreign authority,and offers the possibility for complaints tobe lodged by interested parties. Due to this procedure, certain targets, some of whichsharedlegalcounsel,lodgedacomplaintandwonanappealagainsttheseizures.
Asaresult,tospeeduptheexecutionofmul-tiple MLA requests against the same per-sonsand/orcorporations,theassistanceofEurojust was requested and a bilateral case was registered.A coordination meeting held at Eurojust in February 2014 focused on the possibilitiestoexpeditetheexecutionprocess,whilerec-ognising the restrictions on the procedures involved. The German and Dutch authorities
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292014 Annual Report
presentatthemeetingagreedonmethodsofenhancing cooperation by: ` SendingseparateMLArequestsforasum-mons to surrender documents and search-ingthewarehousesofanumberofcorpo-rationsinsteadofprocessingtworequestscontained in the same document; ` Inquiring with the national authorities whetherdocumentsofvaluetotheinves-tigationinAugsburghadbeenseizedbythe Dutch authorities during earlier in-vestigations into these corporations and sendinganMLArequestforthepurposeoftransferringthesedocuments;and ` Withdrawing the MLA requests fromCologne and executing the two requests sent by the PPO in Augsburg only. At a laterstage,thePPOinColognecouldre-quest the information collected for thepurposeoftheAugsburgcases.The common interest and constructive dia-
logueoftheparticipatingnationalauthoritieswerekeyfactorsinensuringjudicialcoopera-tion between the two Member States while respecting existing procedural requirements.
2.1.2 Corruption
Thenumberofcorruptioncases(55)andJITswithinthis crime type (4) increased slightly over the pre-vious year, and the number of related coordinationmeetingssignificantlydecreased(9).
Corruption is often addressed as a stand-alone of-fence(26),orinconjunctionwithmoneylaundering(14)orswindlingandfraud(10).
Withregardtocorruptioncases,themostrequestingMemberStateswereSpain,Greece,Croatia,Italy,andLatvia. The most requested Member States were the UK,Austria,GermanyandtheNetherlands.
To reinforce its involvement in the fieldof counter-ingcorruption,therelevantproceduresareongoingfor Eurojusts association with the following FocalPoints: Sports Corruption and Asset Recovery.
Furthermore, Eurojust attended and delivered apresentation at a conference organised by the EUCrossBorderBriberyTaskforce.TheTaskforcecon-sistsoflawenforcementpractitionersandprosecu-torsfromtheMemberStatesandisledbytheOver-seasAnti-CorruptionUnitwithintheCityofLondonPolice.It isdesignedtobringtogetherEUagencieswith similar remits to share information on con-temporary practice and case studies, identify mu-tualcasesandopportunitiesforjointinvestigations,develop networks and build working relationships withanti-briberyprofessionalstoimproveEU-wideknowledgeofdifferentagencieslegal,jurisdictionaland operational parameters.2.1.3 Criminal offences affecting the EUs financial interests (PIF offences)
Introducedasacrimepriorityin2014,PIFoffencesincreased within Eurojusts casework compared to thepreviousreportingperiod.Thenumberofcasesdealing with PIF offences registered in 2014 (70)more than doubled over 2013 (31). Seven coordina-tionmeetingsandtwoJITsdealtwithPIFoffences.
Within the framework of Eurojusts casework, PIFoffences include the crimes of cigarette smugglingandcounterfeitinginadditiontoallcriminaloffencesstrictlyaffectingtheEUsfinancialinterests.Inmostcases,PIFcrimesaredealtwithasastand-alonesetofoffences,orinconjunctionwithswindlingandfraud(35) or money laundering (8).ThemostrequestingMemberStateswereHungary,Bul-garia,MaltaandPoland.Germany,theUKandtheSlovakRepublic were the most requested Member States.TheprotectionofthefinancialinterestsoftheEuro-peanUnionwasalsothesubjectofaquestionnairecirculatedtoallMemberStates.Thecompilationofthe answers was presented to the College in Decem-ber 2014. The Member States responses highlight-edthefollowingfactorsasthemainlegal/practicalchallengesincross-bordercooperationinthisfield:thetensionsinherentindifferinglegalsystems(e.g.differentrequirementsconcerningtheadmissibilityofevidenceincourt);delaysinorfailuretoexecuteMLArequests;andthenon-coordinatedexecutionofsearch warrants. The responses also attached importance to Eurojusts supportinthisfield,withparticularregardtoitsabil-ity to provide assistance in the preparation and/or executionofMLAproceduresorinstrumentsandtoresolvingconflictsofjurisdiction.
-
30 Eurojust casework
Case illustration
AninvestigationconductedbytheLithuaniancustomsauthoritiesintobriberyandforgeryofdocu-mentsandtheunlawfulpossessionofgoodssubjecttoexcisedutyshowedthatLithuaniannationalsjoinedanOCGin2011toillegallyb
