Mr Aled Williams, New President for Eurojust

Aled Williams, National Member for the United Kingdom, elected as new President of Eurojust.

On 16 February, during a special plenary meeting, the College of Eurojust elected Mr Aled Williams as its new President. This election must be approved by the Council of the European Union by qualified majority. Until that time, Ms Michèle Coninsx, Vice-President and National Member for Belgium, will remain Acting President.

Mr Williams’ legal career started in 1984 when he was admitted as a solicitor and then worked as a prosecutor with responsibility for serious cases of homicide, fraud and drug trafficking. In 2002 he was appointed the United Kingdom liaison magistrate to Spain. He worked in the Ministry of Justice in Madrid for four years, dealing with mutual legal assistance, extradition and the introduction of European Arrest Warrant procedures. Mr Williams first joined Eurojust in July 2006 as Deputy National Member for the UK and in 2008 was appointed as National Member for the United Kingdom at Eurojust.

After the election, Mr Williams commented: “I am delighted and honoured to be elected as the new President of Eurojust. We are a rapidly developing judicial cooperation unit, and following the Treaty of Lisbon and revised Eurojust Decision much work lies ahead to ensure that cross-border investigations and prosecutions throughout the European Union are facilitated and made more effective. Last year, almost 1400 cases were referred to Eurojust by EU Member States, which marks a seven-fold increase from 2002 when Eurojust was first established. I believe this is a strong indicator of the important role Eurojust is already playing today and will build on in the future.”

For more information:
Joannes THUY
Press Officer & Spokesperson
EUROJUST
Maanweg 174, NL-2516 AB The Hague
The Netherlands
Tel +31 70 412 5508 - Fax +31 70 412 5005
E-mail: jthuy@eurojust.europa.eu