5.1. Eurojust: home to global justice - cooperation outside the EU’s borders
As crime becomes increasingly global, judicial authorities need to find easier ways to work across borders. Eurojust builds relationships with judicial authorities worldwide: this enables operational cooperation and coordination and the dismantling of hundreds of organised crime networks, keeping Europe safe and getting justice done.
Casework involving third countries
Since 2020, about 20% of newly registered Eurojust cases involve a third country each year. Countries that posted a Liaison Prosecutor to Eurojust and which benefit from the possibility of systematic exchanges of personal data are at the top of the list of third countries involved in Eurojust cases: in 2025, for the first time in this period, Switzerland had the most involvement with 275 cases, followed by the United Kingdom, Albania and Ukraine.
Major operation against EUR 300 million global credit card fraud
CRIME: Three criminal networks defraud several million credit card users with 19 million accounts in 193 countries. The suspects steal credit card data, set up fake accounts and authorise charges to credit cards.
ACTION: An action day taking place in 10 countries, coordinated by Eurojust, puts a stop to the fraudulent activities that took place between 2016 and 2021.
RESULT: 18 suspects are arrested, among whom are five executive officials from payment service providers. During 60 searches, cryptocurrencies, luxury vehicles, mobile phones and laptops are seized.
EUROJUST'S ROLE: Eurojust organises several coordination meetings and supports the execution of 90 EIOs and MLAs to 30 countries. Through the network of Contact Points, judicial cooperation with Canada and Singapore is facilitated.
Liaison Prosecutors
Liaison Prosecutors posted at Eurojust can open cases towards EU Member States and be invited to participate in cases of the Member States. In 2025, the 12 Liaison Prosecutors opened 381 new cases and had 814 open from previous years. Liaison Prosecutors frequently attend coordination meetings and coordination centres and participate in JITs.
Overview of cases in 2025 involving Liaison Prosecutors
Liaison Prosecutor | Cases initiated by the Liaison Prosecutor | Participation in cases initiated by other Desks | Participation in joint activities/meetings | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New in 2025 | No. of countries involved | Ongoing from previous years | New in 2025 | Ongoing from previous years | Coordination meetings | JITs | Action days | ||
2 | 3 or more | ||||||||
Albania | 70 | 63 | 7 | 91 | 51 | 99 | 27 | 27 | 3 |
Georgia | 21 | 21 | 0 | 43 | 20 | 43 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
Iceland | 13 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 18 | 8 | 2 | 0 |
Montenegro | 12 | 12 | 0 | 34 | 15 | 39 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Moldova | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 25 | 67 | 21 | 24 | 1 |
North Macedonia | 13 | 10 | 3 | 24 | 18 | 45 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
Norway | 57 | 52 | 5 | 146 | 24 | 102 | 24 | 17 | 1 |
Serbia | 37 | 32 | 5 | 122 | 57 | 101 | 14 | 8 | 0 |
Switzerland | 95 | 82 | 13 | 166 | 180 | 389 | 59 | 25 | 2 |
Ukraine | 24 | 21 | 3 | 91 | 77 | 172 | 65 | 49 | 0 |
United Kingdom | 29 | 26 | 3 | 78 | 215 | 567 | 100 | 43 | 4 |
United States | 5 | 3 | 2 | 16 | 48 | 177 | 48 | 1 | 2 |
Total | 381 | 339 | 42 | 814 | * | * | * | * | * |
* These columns cannot be summed up, as more than one Liaison Prosecutor can be requested to participate in a single case, and coordination meetings, coordination centres and JITs are often co-organised.
International agreements
In 2025, Eurojust welcomed the conclusion of the Agreement between the EU and Lebanon on cooperation with Eurojust. Negotiations, led by the European Commission, progressed with several other countries.
Contact Points
By the end of 2025, Eurojust had Contact Points in 82 countries worldwide as well as three regional organisations.
Contact points can facilitate or coordinate the execution of hundreds of requests for judicial cooperation either from EU authorities to third countries or vice-versa. As an example, in 2025 the number of these requests from Eurojust's Latin American Contact Points increased fivefold.
Working Arrangements
In 2025, Eurojust concluded new strategic Working Arrangements with Egypt, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Previously signed Working Arrangements with other countries have already proven effective as the number of judicial assistance requests channelled through Eurojust in 2025 more than tripled compared to 2024.
EuroMed Justice and Western Balkans Criminal Justice Projects
The two externally funded regional projects implemented by Eurojust continued to build judicial cooperation partnerships and capacities, respectively, with the Southern Neighbourhood countries and the Western Balkans partners. Especially important is the fact that the projects help judicial authorities in the EU and its neighbouring regions connect and cooperate more closely together as they are impacted by the activities of the same organised crime groups.
A growing global network
In 2025, Eurojust was also working on building a stronger relationship with organisations and countries in more distant regions, such as the National Centre for International Judicial Cooperation of Iraq (to enhance access to the evidence collected by UNITAD), with the Gulf Cooperation Council, the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States as well as the United Arab Emirates and China.
Connecting jurisdictions worldwide
The power of the multi-faceted system of relationships that Eurojust has built with third countries was shown at an event where the Agency hosted a high-level visit of judicial authorities, connecting over 50 jurisdictions. Eleven countries from Latin America and the Caribbean, four from the Western Balkans and seven from the Southern Neighbourhood participated in the meeting in December, providing an opportunity to engage with EU Member States and the 12 countries represented by a Liaison Prosecutor at Eurojust. With the active support of the Western Balkans Criminal Justice project, the event enabled the signing of 17 Memoranda of Understanding between Latin American and Western Balkans partners, as well as a high-level discussion on JITs and the globalisation of serious organised crime, with a focus on drug trafficking.
The added value of this event for the judicial authorities in Member States can be quantified: over three days, 82 operational bilateral and multilateral meetings took place between the authorities of the Member States and those of Latin America, the Western Balkans and the Southern Neighbourhood.
Eurojust is an agency of the European Union