On 4 December, Mr Ladislav Hamran (President of Eurojust) informed the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs Council on the latest developments at Eurojust on working towards accountability for Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Ministers were updated on the state of play of the Joint Investigation Team’s work (JIT), the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) as well as on the Core International Crimes Evidence Database (CICED).
Eurojust continued to support Member States who have joined the JIT (EE, LT, LV, PL, RO, SK ) with legal advice, logistic arrangements financial assistance amounting to nearly 300.000 EUR in grants at present. With investigations currently ongoing, the JIT can further rely on the support of Eurojust, Europol, the International Criminal Court and the United States. On the ICPA, President Hamran informed ministers about a USD 1 million contribution to its operations by the United States. The financial support comes in addition to the US Special Prosecutor at the ICPA who joined the ICPA in September 2023. Finally, the President reported on the CICED data base, which is now fully operational less than 18 months after Eurojust was entrusted with setting it up. CICED serves to preserve, store and analyse evidence and will be crucial in establishing the scale and systemic approach of the suspected war crimes. Mr. Hamran called on Member States to contribute with any evidence their prosecution services may hold.
Eurojust is an agency of the European Union