SIRIUS

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More than half of all criminal investigations today include a cross-border request to access electronic evidence held by Service Providers (SPs). This may include the contents of texts, emails or messaging apps, or data identifying the particular user of a service and his or her location. In a rapidly changing online environment, investigators and prosecutors need support to cope with the complexity and volume of information and to develop their knowledge when obtaining electronic data from SPs based in other jurisdictions.

The SIRIUS project, co-implemented by Eurojust and Europol, is a central reference point in the EU for knowledge sharing on cross-border access to electronic evidence. It offers a variety of services, such as guidelines, trainings and tools, to help with accessing data held by SPs. These services are available to law enforcement and judicial authorities via a platform and an application. To this day, SIRIUS serves a community of competent authorities from 47 countries, representing all EU Member States and a growing number of third countries, as well as the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO).

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

Scope and membership

The multidisciplinary SIRIUS platform is hosted on the Europol Platform of Experts (EPE). It contains a variety of products, including but not limited to:

  • Written materials, such as guidelines on how to lawfully obtain information from different Service Providers (SPs) in the context of criminal investigations and legal and policy reviews of legal instruments of relevance to cross-border access to electronic evidence;
  • Structured databases containing the contact details of more than 1000 SPs, including cryptocurrency exchanges;
  • Webinars and training materials for law enforcement and judicial authorities; and
  • Restricted discussion forums for members of the judiciary and law enforcement authorities to promote knowledge-sharing and advice within the community.

The platform is restricted to judicial and law enforcement authorities from EU Member States, the United Kingdom and third countries with a cooperation agreement with Eurojust (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States of America) and/or Europol (Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Colombia, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States of America).

Registration

Judicial authorities (prosecutors, investigative judges, judges, etc.) can apply for membership by contacting sirius.eurojust@eurojust.europa.eu.

Law enforcement authorities can apply for membership by contacting sirius@europol.europa.eu.

Access

Login: https://epe.europol.europa.eu/

The platform is accessible also via the SIRIUS App available for Android and iOS.

Publications

SIRIUS EU Electronic Evidence Situation Report

Each year, the SIRIUS Project issues the SIRIUS EU Electronic Evidence Situation Report, a publicly available report gathering the perspectives of judicial authorities, law enforcement and Service Providers (SPs) on the methods and challenges of collecting electronic data across borders for the purposes of criminal investigations and prosecutions.

The reports can be downloaded here:

2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019

Legal and Policy Reviews

The SIRIUS project regularly prepares periodic legal and policy reviews on topics of interest to cross-border access to electronic evidence, such as existing and upcoming legal instruments of relevance and guidelines on requesting Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) from different jurisdictions.

 

These documents contain an analysis of the proposal for the e-evidence legislative package from the perspective of the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament. This analysis covers the background of the e-evidence legislative package, the scope of its application, the toolbox that it offers and its effects on the different actors involved.

These documents provide an analysis of the Digital Services Act (DSA), an EU law that brings updated and harmonised rules for providers of digital services. They focus on the toolbox put in place by the DSA, which is relevant in the process of accessing information held by service providers, in particular in criminal investigations and proceedings.

These documents provide information on various initiatives on digital platforms for the cross-border transmission of judicial cooperation measures and electronic exchange of case-related data in criminal investigations.

These documents analyse other significant policy and legal developments in the field of electronic evidence.

These documents contain easy to follow guidelines on requesting Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) in criminal matters from specific jurisdictions, particularly focusing on obtaining access to electronic evidence. They provide information on the basis for cooperation, the scope of assistance, requirements for MLA requests, grounds for refusal, limitations on the use of provided evidence, and contact information for the Central Authority for MLA.

These documents analyse specific topics of interest for the process of cross-border access to electronic evidence.

Templates

The SIRIUS Project, in cooperation with the UNODC, UNCTED, CEPOL and the EuroMed Justice and EuroMed Police projects, has developed a set of stand-alone model forms for national authorities seeking to send direct requests for voluntary cooperation to Service Providers (SPs) for the preservation or disclosure of data.

Downloads:

Activities

SIRIUS Annual Conference

The SIRIUS Annual Conference, co-organised by Eurojust and Europol, brings together judicial and law enforcement authorities from all EU Member States, as well as policy experts, representatives of Service Providers (SPs) and other actors involved in the field, and provides them with the opportunity to address issues and challenges related to cross-border access to electronic evidence.

The press releases following previous editions of the SIRIUS Annual Conference can be found here:

2022 | 2021 | 2019 | 2018

Advisory Board meeting

The SIRIUS Advisory Board meeting is held annually to present the main achievements of the project in the previous year and discuss the project’s way forward.

The Advisory Board is composed of representatives of the European Commission, the Council of Europe (CoE), the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL), the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UNCTED), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United States Department of Justice (US DoJ), the European Cybercrime Training and Education Group (ECTEG), the European Judicial Network (EJN), the European Judicial Cybercrime Network (EJCN) and the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN).

The press releases following previous editions of the Advisory Board meeting can be found here:

2023 | 2021