11 Facts About Eurojust

Eurojust is an agency of the European Union dealing with judicial co-operation in criminal matters among agencies of the member states.

Eurojust is composed of a college formed of 27 national members—experienced judges, prosecutors, or police officers of equivalent competence from each EU member state.

Eurojust co-operates with third states and other EU bodies such as the European Judicial Network, Europol and the OLAF.

Eurojust was established as a result of a decision that the European Council of Tampere made to set up a permanent judicial co-operation unit in order to improve the fight against serious crime.

On 14 December 2000, a precursor organization called Pro-Eurojust was created by the Council of the European Union to permit prosecutors to test the Eurojust processes.

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Since its establishment, Eurojust has focused heavily on forging international co-operation agreements and building international contact points, including the basing at Eurojust of several liaison prosecutors .

New Council Decision on the Strengthening of Eurojust was signed in July 2008 to enhance Eurojust's cooperation with partners and third States and to generally strengthen its operational capabilities.

Eurojust's primary focus are on crimes that represent a "special threat" to citizens, such as terrorism, drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings, cybercrime, fraud, corruption, money laundering and other economic crime.

Eurojust is not empowered to investigate or prosecute crimes, but instead works to coordinate investigations and prosecutions between the EU Member States when dealing with cross-border crime.

Eurojust has handled an increasingly heavy caseload since its creation.

Eurojust organised 249 co-ordination meetings between representatives of national authorities and EU bodies in 2016.