This fourth report of Europol, Eurojust and the European Judicial Network (EJN) on the EU digital evidence situation includes the results of SIRIUS’ research on experiences of EU Member States’ competent authorities, as well as Online Service Providers (OSPs), with cross-border access to digital evidence in criminal investigations. The report reflects on the complexity of cross-border investigations involving digital evidence, offering extensive feedback from officials of EU Member States’ law enforcement and judicial authorities. It shows that there was a 36% increase in the volume of requests for data to OSPs in 2021, while the number of Emergency Disclosure Requests increased by 29%. The success cases presented in this report also show how digital evidence is crucial in all crime areas. The report confirms that the SIRIUS platform, hosted on the Europol Platform for Experts, remains the number one source of information for law enforcement and judicial practitioners seeking know-how in relation to data acquisition methods in cross-border circumstances.

The SIRIUS project has received funding from the European Commission' s Service for Foreign Policy (FPI) under contribution agreement No PI/2020/417-500.