Council of the EU, 25 May 2022. The Council adopted new regulations allowing Eurojust to retain, analyse, and archive evidence linked to core international crimes, including as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, in order to assist secure responsibility for crimes perpetrated in Ukraine.
On the 30th of May, the European Parliament and the Council will sign the document, which will then be published in the Official Journal. It will go into effect the day after it is published.
The new rules will allow Eurojust to:
store and preserve evidence relating to war crimes, including satellite images, photographs, videos, audio recordings, DNA profiles and fingerprints
process and analyse this evidence, in close cooperation with Europol, and share the information with the relevant national and international judicial authorities, including the International Criminal Court.
Numerous reports from Ukraine have tragically highlighted that crimes against humanity and war crimes have been and are being perpetrated in Ukraine since the commencement of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine stated the Council of the EU.
All EU member states, as well as additional partner governments, consented in early March to jointly report the situation in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court. Ministers encouraged Eurojust to preform its coordinating function and make itself available to the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor during a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council on March 4th.
In addition to the investigation by the ICC prosecutor, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has opened an investigation, as have the authorities of several member states. A joint investigation team has also been established by the judicial authorities of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, with the support of Eurojust and the participation of the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC and shortly of the judicial authorities of Slovakia, Latvia and Estonia.
Council of the European Union
