Eurojust’s role in the larger system of cross-border judicial cooperation continues to expand as the European Union works to use new digital technologies to improve the efficiency and functioning of justice systems. 2021 was a year to lay solid foundations for several larger projects in this field.

19.1. Preparations for a new Case Management System for Eurojust

The Communication on Digitalisation of Justice in the European Union, issued by the Commission in December 2020, endorsed the conclusions of the Digital Criminal Justice Study that the modernisation of Eurojust’s Case Management System is essential for the wider plans on digitalisation of justice in the European Union.

Following the recommendation included in the Digital Criminal Justice Study Report, the market research for the selection of the IT tool started in 2021; the selection will be completed by mid-2022.

The Commission supported Eurojust with additional funding of EUR 9.5 million in 2021, which will partially cover the costs of implementing the new CMS.

19.2. Link detection and hit/no-hit connections

In the future, the link detection services of Eurojust will be enhanced, as the Agency will have hit/no-hit connections in place with the databases of Europol and the EPPO. In 2021 and the coming years, before the new Eurojust CMS is in place, ongoing preparatory work will continue to take place with both partners to ensure that once the technical connections exist, there are clear procedures in place to oversee the use of the connections.

With Europol, there is a hit/no-hit pilot planned to start in 2022; with the EPPO the focus of the work done in 2021 was on using the EPPO box tool. Eurojust is also a member of a European Commission Task Force on the hit/no-hit system.