Victims' rights are central to effective judicial cooperation. Ensuring that victims are properly identified, informed, and able to participate in proceedings strengthens investigations and prosecutions, particularly in cross-border cases.

Eurojust plays a key role in safeguarding these rights by coordinating among national authorities, sharing best practices and supporting practitioners across the EU. The importance of this work cannot be overstated: in cases open at Eurojust in 2025, at least 3.1 million crime victims were impacted.

In particular, Eurojust facilitated:

• arranging the hearing of a victim via videoconference to minimise the risk of secondary victimisation,
• resolving conflicts of jurisdiction in cases where a victim reported a crime to multiple countries' authorities, and
• compensation for victims.

In 2025, Eurojust focused on the identification and definition of victims in a cross-border context. This is a prerequisite for the effective exercise of victims' rights and was discussed during the Symposium held in April 2025.

Protecting victims' rights is an overarching consideration in Eurojust operational and strategic work. In 2025, this meant, inter alia, that:

• at the meeting of the Focus Group of Specialised Prosecutors against Trafficking in Human Beings, judicial cooperation on cases of trafficking involving child victims was discussed, including the underreporting of such crimes – as children do not consider themselves victims – and the use of children by OCGs;
• the first Eurojust Casework Report on the Mutual Recognition of Freezing and Confiscation Orders dedicates a chapter to the compensation and restitution to victims;
• the annual meeting on migrant smuggling dedicated a session to the complex legal dilemmas surrounding migrant smuggling cases, such as the differences in whether migrants are considered victims or suspects by the legal systems;
• the definition of victims of terrorism and the related legal and practical challenges were discussed during the Eurojust Meeting on Counter-Terrorism, addressing identification of victims in the aftermath of large-scale terrorist attacks, dealing with foreign victims and victims of attacks abroad, and facilitating victims' access to information and support during criminal proceedings and the support Eurojust can provide in such cases;
• the JITs Network Secretariat continued to collect national legislation of Member States relevant to victims' rights – as part of the Fiches Espagnoles – in the context of JITs.

Together with the European Institute for Gender Equality, Eurojust released a joint report on the European Protection Order (EPO) in 2025. The EPO is a mutual recognition instrument designed to ensure the continuity of protection measures for individuals who move between Member States, reinforcing cross-border protection for victims at risk.