OCTOBER 2021

Council of Europe and Eurojust Joint Workshop on International Cooperation in Cybercrime: Joint Investigation Teams / Joint Investigations

                                   

PRACTICAL INFO

 Speakers

  • Ladislav Hamran, President of the College of Eurojust
  • Virgil Spiridon, Head of Operations, CoE Cybercrime Programme Office (C-PROC)
  • Tania Schroeter, Deputy Head of Unit, DG JUST, European Commission
  • Slawomir Buczma, Seconded National Expert (judge) to the Joint Investigation Teams Network Secretariat, Eurojust
  • Baudoin Thouvenot, National Member for France at Eurojust
  • Myroslava Krasnoborova, Liaison Prosecutor for Ukraine at Eurojust
  • Kenneth Harris, U.S. Department of Justice, T-CY representative

 Date and time

  • Tuesday, 19 October 2021, 13h30 - 16h30, the Netherlands time

 Duration and language

  • 3 h | English, French, Spanish, Portuguese

  Audience

  • Representatives of law enforcement authorities dealing with cybercrime investigations, prosecution service and central authority - responsible for mutual assistance in cases of cybercrime and electronic evidence from approx 42 countries.
  • Liaison prosecutors of participating countries represented at Eurojust.

 This webinar is jointly organised by the Council of Europe and EuroJust.

 Outline

DETAILS

Background

Cybercrime is a transnational phenomenon by its nature and requires a rapid and effective international cooperation between criminal justice authorities of states for qualification of the offences, identification of the procedural powers to be used and jurisdictions that apply to different illegal activities. Moreover, the quick access to data that is stored for limited time on the IT infrastructure rely on international and domestic legal tools available in the countries for the cooperation with the private sector.

The misuse of information technology by offenders not only in cybercrime activities are posing great challenges for criminal justice authorities and to the rule of law. Therefore, with the raise of offences involving computers and electronic evidence, effective countermeasures to enhance international judicial cooperation in cybercrime cases in a consistent and harmonized manner is essential. Eurojust and the Council of Europe have agreed to join forces to tackle this problem inter alia through capacity building.

Eurojust stimulates the coordination of investigations and prosecutions between the competent authorities in the Member States of the European Union and improves cooperation between competent authorities of EU Member States, by facilitating the execution of international mutual legal assistance, the implementation of extradition requests as well as the establishment of Joint Investigations Teams (JITs). Moreover, Eurojust supports in any way possible the competent authorities of the EU Member States to render their investigations and prosecutions more effective when dealing with cross-border crime the same types of crime and offences for which Europol has competence, cybercrime being one of them.

The European Union and the Council of Europe assist countries through a range of joint capacity building projects implemented by the Cybercrime Programme Office of the Council of Europe (C-PROC). The cybercrime capacity building projects are targeting primarily the criminal justice authorities from countries committed to follow the international standards on legislative and policy frameworks compliant to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and related instruments, aiming to reinforce their capacities to deal with cybercrime and electronic evidence.

The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime is the most relevant international treaty on cybercrime and electronic evidence, with currently 66 Parties and 11 Observer States. Some of its provisions – e.g. Article 26 on “spontaneous information” – are also used in the context of joint investigations. A new, second additional protocol to the Budapest Convention on enhanced cooperation and disclosure of electronic evidence is about to be adopted and is expected to be opened for signature in Spring 2022. This Protocol will include a specific provision on “joint investigation teams and joint investigations” for cases of cybercrime or involving electronic evidence.

Organized jointly by Eurojust and the Council of Europe (C-PROC), the event aims to present the challenges of operational cooperation and how they can be addressed through the establishment of JITs or joint investigations when the conditions for JITs are not met. Moreover, the event is expected to introduce the new legal tools offered by the Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention on enhanced international cooperation between states and how they complement the existing ones. Therefore, countries will be invited to express the benefits and potential difficulties to implement them at the national level.

Outcome

By the end of the workshop, the participants are expected to:

  • have a better understanding of the existing and future legal framework on Joint Investigation Teams/Joint Investigations in cybercrime;
  • become familiar with the challenges in setting up JITs and required capacities of criminal justice authorities for handling joint investigations in cybercrime.

Resources