Decision 2009/426 - Strengthening of Eurojust and amending Decision 2002/187/JHA setting up Eurojust with a view to reinforcing the fight against serious crime - Main contents
4.6.2009 |
EN |
Official Journal of the European Union |
L 138/14 |
COUNCIL DECISION 2009/426/JHA
of 16 December 2008
on the strengthening of Eurojust and amending Decision 2002/187/JHA setting up Eurojust with a view to reinforcing the fight against serious crime
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty on European Union, and in particular Articles 31(2) and 34(2)(c) thereof,
Having regard to the initiative of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, the Italian Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Poland, the Portuguese Republic, the Republic of Slovenia, the Slovak Republic and the Kingdom of Sweden,
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament (1),
Whereas:
(1) |
Eurojust was set up by Council Decision 2002/187/JHA (2) as a body of the European Union with legal personality to stimulate and to improve coordination and cooperation between competent judicial authorities of the Member States. |
(2) |
On the basis of an assessment of the experience gained by Eurojust, a further enhancement of its operational effectiveness is needed by taking account of that experience. |
(3) |
The time has come to ensure that Eurojust becomes more operational and that the status of national members is approximated. |
(4) |
In order to ensure continuous and effective contribution from the Member States to the achievement by Eurojust of its objectives, the national member should be required to have his regular place of work at the seat of Eurojust. |
(5) |
It is necessary to define a common basis of powers which every national member should have in his capacity as a competent national authority acting in accordance with national law. Some of these powers should be granted to the national member for urgent cases where it is not possible for him to identify or to contact the competent national authority in a timely manner. It is understood that these powers will not have to be exercised in so far as it is possible to identify and to contact the competent authority. |
(6) |
This Decision does not affect the manner in which the Member States organise their internal judicial system or administrative procedures for the designation of the national member and the setting up of the internal working of the national desks at Eurojust. |
(7) |
The setting up of an On-Call Coordination (OCC) within Eurojust is necessary to make Eurojust available around the clock and to enable it to intervene in urgent cases. It should be the responsibility of each Member State to ensure that their representatives in the OCC are able to act on a 24-hour/7-day basis. |
(8) |
Member States should ensure that competent national authorities respond without undue delay to requests made under this Decision, even if competent national authorities refuse to comply with requests made by the national member. |
(9) |
The role of the College should be enhanced in cases of conflict of jurisdiction and in cases of recurrent refusals or difficulties concerning the execution of requests for, and decisions on, judicial cooperation, including regarding instruments giving effect to the principle of mutual recognition. |
(10) |
Eurojust national coordination systems should be set up in the Member States to coordinate the work carried out by the national correspondents for Eurojust, the national correspondent for Eurojust for terrorism matters, the national correspondent for the European Judicial Network and up to three other contact points of the European Judicial Network, as well as representatives in the Networks for Joint Investigation Teams, War Crimes, Asset Recovery and Corruption. |
(11) |
The Eurojust national coordination system should ensure that the Case Management System receives information related to the Member State concerned in an efficient and reliable manner. However, the Eurojust national coordination system should not have to be responsible for actually transmitting information to Eurojust. Member States should decide on the best channel to be used for the transmission of information to Eurojust. |
(12) |
In order to enable the Eurojust national coordination system to fulfil its tasks, a connection to the Case Management System should be ensured. The connection to the Case Management System should be made taking due account of national information technology systems. Access to the Case Management System at national level should be based on the central role played by the national member who is responsible for the opening and management of temporary work files. |
(13) |
Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA of 27 November 2008 on the protection of personal data processed in the framework of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters (3) is applicable to the processing by the Member States of the personal data transferred between the Member States and Eurojust. The relevant set of data protection provisions of Decision 2002/187/JHA will not be affected by Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA and contains specific provisions on the protection of personal data regulating these matters in more detail because of the particular nature, functions and competences of Eurojust. |
(14) |
Eurojust should be authorised to process certain personal data on persons who, under the national legislation of the Member States concerned, are suspected of having committed or having taken part in a criminal offence in respect of which Eurojust is competent, or who have been convicted of such an offence. The list of such personal data should include telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, vehicle registration data, DNA profiles established from the non-coding part of DNA, photographs and fingerprints. The list should also include traffic data and location data and the related data necessary to identify the subscriber or user of a publicly available electronic communications service; this should not include data revealing the content of the communication. It is not intended that Eurojust carry out an automated comparison of DNA profiles or fingerprints. |
(15) |
Eurojust should be given the opportunity to extend the deadlines for storage of personal data in order to achieve its objectives. Such decisions should be taken following careful consideration of particular needs. Any extension of deadlines for processing personal data, where prosecution is statute barred in all Member States concerned, should be decided only where there is a specific need to provide assistance under this Decision. |
(16) |
The Rules on the Joint Supervisory Body should facilitate its functioning. |
(17) |
With a view to increasing the operational effectiveness of Eurojust, transmission of information to Eurojust should be improved by providing clear and limited obligations for national authorities. |
(18) |
Eurojust should implement priorities set by the Council, in particular those set on the basis of the Organised Crime Threat Assessment (OCTA), as referred to in the Hague Programme (4). |
(19) |
Eurojust is to maintain privileged relations with the European Judicial Network based on consultation and complementarity. This Decision should help clarify the respective roles of Eurojust and the European Judicial Network and their mutual relations, while maintaining the specificity of the European Judicial Network. |
(20) |
Nothing in this Decision should be construed to affect the autonomy of the secretariats of the networks mentioned in this Decision when they discharge their function as Eurojust staff in accordance with the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities laid down by Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/68 of the Council (5). |
(21) |
It is also necessary to strengthen Eurojust’s capacity to work with external partners, such as third States, the European Police Office (Europol), the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the Council’s Joint Situation Centre and the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex). |
(22) |
Provision should be made for Eurojust to post liaison magistrates to third States in order to achieve objectives similar to those assigned to liaison magistrates seconded by the Member States on the basis of Council Joint Action 96/277/JHA of 22 April 1996 concerning a framework for the exchange of liaison magistrates to improve judicial cooperation between the Member States of the European Union (6). |
(23) |
This Decision allows the principle of public access to official documents to be taken into account, |
HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:
Article 1
Amendments to Decision 2002/187/JHA
Decision 2002/187/JHA is hereby amended as follows:
1. |
Article 2 shall be replaced by the following: ‘Article 2 Composition of Eurojust
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2. |
Article 3 shall be amended as follows:
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3. |
Article 4(1) shall be amended as follows:
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4. |
the following Article shall be inserted: ‘Article 5a On-Call Coordination
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5. |
Article 6 shall be amended as follows:
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6. |
Article 7 shall be amended as follows:
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7. |
Articles 8 and 9 shall be replaced by the following: ‘Article 8 Follow up to requests and opinions of Eurojust If the competent authorities of the Member States concerned decide not to comply with a request referred to in Article 6(1)(a) or Article 7(1)(a) or decide not to follow a written opinion referred to in Article 7(2) and (3), they shall inform Eurojust without undue delay of their decision and of the reasons for it. Where it is not possible to give the reasons for refusing to comply with a request because to do so would harm essential national security interests or would jeopardise the safety of individuals, the competent authorities of the Member States may cite operational reasons. Article 9 National members
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8. |
the following Articles shall be inserted: ‘Article 9a Powers of the national member granted to him at national level
Article 9b Ordinary powers
Article 9c Powers exercised in agreement with a competent national authority
Article 9d Powers exercised in urgent cases In their capacity as competent national authorities, national members shall, in urgent cases and in so far as it is not possible for them to identify or to contact the competent national authority in a timely manner, be entitled:
As soon as the competent national authority is identified or contacted, it shall be informed of the exercise of powers referred to in this Article. Article 9e Requests from national members where powers cannot be exercised
Article 9f Participation of national members in joint investigation teams National members shall be entitled to participate in joint investigation teams, including in their setting up, in accordance with Article 13 of the Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters between the Member States of the European Union or Council Framework Decision 2002/465/JHA of 13 June 2002 on joint investigation teams (8), concerning their own Member State. However, Member States may make the participation of the national member subject to the agreement of the competent national authority. National members, their deputies or their assistants, shall be invited to participate in any joint investigation team involving their Member State and for which Community funding is provided under the applicable financial instruments. Each Member State shall define whether the national member participates in the joint investigation team as a national competent authority or on behalf of Eurojust. |
9. |
Article 10 shall be amended as follows:
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10. |
Article 12 shall be replaced by the following: ‘Article 12 Eurojust national coordination system
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11. |
Article 13 shall be replaced by the following: ‘Article 13 Exchanges of information with the Member States and between national members
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12. |
the following Article shall be inserted: ‘Article 13a Information provided by Eurojust to competent national authorities
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13. |
Article 14 shall be amended as follows:
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14. |
Article 15(1) shall be amended as follows:
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15. |
Article 16 shall be replaced by the following: ‘Article 16 Case Management System, index and temporary work files
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16. |
the following Articles shall be inserted: ‘Article 16a Functioning of temporary work files and the index
Article 16b Access to the Case Management System at national level
However, persons referred to in Article 12(2), in so far as they are connected to the Case Management System in accordance with Article 12(6), shall at least have access to the index to the extent necessary to access the temporary work files to which they have been granted access in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article.
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17. |
Article 17 shall be amended as follows:
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18. |
Article 18 shall be replaced by the following: ‘Article 18 Authorised access to personal data Only national members, their deputies and their assistants referred to in Article 2(2), persons referred to in Article 12(2) in so far as they are connected to the Case Management System in accordance with Article 12(6) and authorised Eurojust staff may, for the purpose of achieving Eurojust’s objectives and within the limits provided for in Articles 16, 16a and 16b, have access to personal data processed by Eurojust.’; |
19. |
in Article 19(4)(b), the words ‘which Eurojust is assisting’ shall be deleted; |
20. |
Article 21 shall be amended as follows:
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21. |
Article 23 shall be amended as follows:
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22. |
Article 25 shall be amended as follows:
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23. |
the following Article shall be inserted: ‘Article 25a Cooperation with the European Judicial Network and other networks of the European Union involved in cooperation in criminal matters
This paragraph shall apply to the secretariat of any new network set up by a decision of the Council where that decision provides that the secretariat shall be provided by Eurojust.
|
24. |
Article 26 shall be replaced by the following: ‘Article 26 Relations with Community or Union related institutions, bodies and agencies
Eurojust shall also establish and maintain cooperative relations with the European Judicial Training Network.
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25. |
the following Article shall be inserted: ‘Article 26a Relations with third States and organisations
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26. |
Article 27 shall be replaced by the following: ‘Article 27 Transmission of data
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27. |
the following Articles shall be inserted: ‘Article 27a Liaison magistrates posted to third States
Article 27b Requests for judicial cooperation to and from third States
Article 27c Liability other than liability for unauthorised or incorrect processing of data
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28. |
in the second sentence of Article 28(2), the words ‘acting by qualified majority,’ shall be inserted after ‘the Council’; |
29. |
Article 29 shall be amended as follows:
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30. |
Article 30 shall be amended as follows:
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31. |
Article 32 shall be amended as follows:
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32. |
Article 33 shall be replaced by the following: ‘Article 33 Finance
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33. |
Article 35(1) shall be amended as follows:
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34. |
Article 36 shall be amended as follows:
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35. |
the following Article shall be inserted: ‘Article 39a EU classified information Eurojust shall apply the security principles and minimum standards set out in Council Decision 2001/264/EC of 19 March 2001 adopting the Council’s security regulations (19) in the management of EU classified information. |
36. |
Article 41 shall be replaced by the following: ‘Article 41 Reporting
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37. |
the following Article shall be inserted: ‘Article 41a Evaluation
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38. |
the Annex whose text appears in the Annex to this Decision shall be added. |
Article 2
Transposition
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1.If necessary the Member States shall bring their national law into conformity with this Decision at the earliest opportunity and in any case no later than 4 June 2011.
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2.The Commission shall at regular intervals examine the implementation by the Member States of Decision 2002/187/JHA as amended and shall submit a report thereon to the European Parliament and to the Council together with, if appropriate, necessary proposals to improve judicial cooperation and the functioning of Eurojust. This shall in particular apply to Eurojust’s capacities to support Member States in fighting terrorism.
Article 3
Taking of effect
This Decision shall take effect on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Done at Brussels, 16 December 2008.
For the Council
The President
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R.BACHELOT-NARQUIN
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Opinion delivered on 2 September 2008 (not yet published in the Official Journal).
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At the time of adoption of this Decision, the competence of Europol is set out in Article 2(1) of the Convention of 26 July 1995 on the establishment of a European Police Office (Europol Convention) (OJ C 316, 27.11.1995, p. 2), as amended by the 2003 Protocol (OJ C 2, 6.1.2004, p. 1), and in the Annex thereto. However, once the Council Decision establishing the European Police Office (Europol) enters into force, the competence of Eurojust will be as set out in Article 4(1) of that Decision and in the Annex thereto.
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Council Decision 2000/641/JHA of 17 October 2000 establishing a secretariat for the joint supervisory data-protection bodies set up by the Convention on the Establishment of a European Police Office (Europol Convention), the Convention on the Use of Information Technology for Customs Purposes and the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement on the gradual abolition of checks at the common borders (Schengen Convention) (OJ L 271, 24.10.2000, p. 1).’;
ANNEX
‘ANNEX
List referred to in Article 13(10) setting out the minimum types of information to be transmitted, where available, to Eurojust pursuant to Article 13(5), (6) and (7)
1. |
For situations referred to in Article 13(5):
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2. |
For situations referred to in Article 13(6):
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3. |
For situations referred to in Article 13(7)(a):
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4. |
For situations referred to in Article 13(7)(b):
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5. |
For situations referred to in Article 13(7)(c):
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This summary has been adopted from EUR-Lex.