The Spanish Desk is headed by José de la Mata Amaya, who is the National Member for Spain since November 2020. In December 2024, Mr De la Mata Amaya was elected Vice-President of Eurojust.
In 2025, the Spanish Desk was involved in 953 new cases, 91 coordination meetings, 8 coordination centres and 15 joint investigation teams.
José de la Mata Amaya was appointed National Member for Spain in November 2020, and elected Vice-President of Eurojust in December 2024. Mr de la Mata entered the judiciary in Spain in 1987. He has been a member of the prosecutor’s body, serving in several judicial positions in the criminal jurisdiction, including as investigative judge in Algeciras and Cádiz, as judge in criminal trials in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the Court of Appeals of Las Palmas and Madrid, and in the High Court of Justice of Madrid. From 2015 to 2020, he served as judge of the Central Investigative Court No 5 of the National Court.
Mr de la Mata has held the positions of lawyer of the General Council of the Judiciary (1993-2001), where he was Director of its Continuing Training and International Relations Departments, lawyer in the service of the Constitutional Court (2003-2009), and General Director of Modernisation in the Ministry of Justice and Secretary-General of the Administration of Justice (2009-2011), where he promoted the creation of the International Legal Cooperation Network of Lawyers of the Judicial Administration.
As contact point for Spain in the Network of National Experts on Joint Investigation Teams (the JITs Network) since 2017, Mr de la Mata has engaged in intense international activity as a consultant, expert and director on projects funded by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation AECID, UNDP, IADB, WB, EU and others.
Ms María de las Heras García has been appointed Deputy National Member for Spain in July 2026. She joined the Spanish Public Prosecution Service in 1999. She has been the Spanish Liaison Magistrate to the authorities of the United States of America (2020) and Canada (2021) until 2026.
She previously served at the Provincial Public Prosecutor’s Office in Girona, the Provincial Public Prosecutor’s Office in Madrid and the International Cooperation Unit at the General Prosecutors’ Office.
At international level, she was seconded as Resident Twinning Adviser for European Union Twinning projects in Poland (2002–2003), Croatia (2005–2006) and Albania (2008–2010). She has also worked on EU-funded projects in the Western Balkans and the Horn of Africa, and as an expert in activities carried out by the World Bank, the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).
She has also been a member of the Network of International Cooperation Prosecutors, a contact point for the European Judicial Network in both criminal and civil matters, and a contact point for the Ibero-American Network for International Legal Cooperation.
Mrs Elisabet Castello is Assistant to the National Member for Spain since February 2021.
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New cases (total) | 515 | 618 | 667 | 818 | 878 | 997 | 961 | 953 |
Coordination meetings (initiating and/or participating) | 72 | 93 | 61 | 72 | 79 | 77 | 94 | 91 |
Coordination centres (organising and/or participating) | 4 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 8 |
Joint investigation teams (newly signed and/or ongoing) | 12 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 18 | 18 | 15 |
Eurojust is an agency of the European Union