Eurojust authorised to preserve evidence of war crimes

The An institution representing the Member States’ interests. Either comprised of the heads of government (European Council) or more frequently the ministers (Council of the EU) meeting in different constellations depending on the policy area. Involved in policy-making, often together with the European Parliament. Council and The EU’s directly elected legislative body comprised of 705 members. It is involved in policymaking but it does not have the power to propose new legislation. European Parliament will sign off new rules for Eurojust, the EU’s agency for Criminal Justice and Cooperation, on 30 May, allowing it to store and preserve evidence related to war crimes and process and share it with relevant authorities. The An institution representing the Member States’ interests. Either comprised of the heads of government (European Council) or more frequently the ministers (Council of the EU) meeting in different constellations depending on the policy area. Involved in policy-making, often together with the European Parliament. Council already adopted these changes on 25 May which will amend an existing regulation regarding Eurojust’s competencies in this field.

These new rules will make Eurojust a central storage place and allow it to play an active part in international (war) crime investigations by preserving audiovisual material such as satellite images, videos, and audio recordings, as well as DNA profiles and fingerprints. Eurojust will also be able to analyse the evidence together with Europol and share the information with national and international authorities, including the International Criminal Court.

The adoption comes in the midst of the Russian war in Ukraine, which sadly has seen a number of war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed on Ukrainian soil. This change in regulation should ensure the effectiveness of investigation through exchange of evidence, and will provide a safe central storage place for evidence since the ongoing war in Ukraine puts the safe storage of evidence on Ukrainian soil at risk.

In March, all EU The 27 countries that are part of the EU. See the list of all members here. Member States and a number of partner states decided to refer the situation in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court, which immediately started investigating potential war crimes. On 23 May, the International Criminal Court convicted the first Russian soldier who was given a life-long sentence for killing an unarmed Ukrainian civilian. 

Eurojust is an EU agency based in The Hague, Netherlands, which coordinates the work of national authorities to investigate and prosecute organised cross-border and international crimes.