A major operation to decrypt Sky ECC in March 2021 by Belgian, French and Dutch authorities, coordinated by Eurojust and Europol, unlocked hundreds of million of messages exchanged between criminals. Since then, judicial authorities and law enforcement have started hundreds of investigations around the world using Sky ECC evidence and were able to successfully take action against some of the world’s most dangerous criminal networks. The French National Desk at Eurojust have supported the execution of many judicial requests for Sky ECC data. To coordinate the judicial requests from the Western Balkans to France and strengthen cooperation on cross-border investigations using Sky ECC data within the region, Operation Flying Bride was started by Eurojust through its French National Desk and Western Balkans Criminal Justice Project.

To kickstart the initiative, a first meeting was organised at Eurojust in April 2026 where prosecutors from the Western Balkans, Slovenia, Croatia and representatives from the French National Public Prosecution Office against Organised Crime (PNACO) came together to discuss how cross-border investigations will be coordinated and how prosecutors could obtain Sky ECC data from France. 

To continue the cooperation, representatives from the six prosecution offices of the Western Balkans region, Croatia and Slovenia were invited on 7 and 8 July in Paris to the PNACO to identify cooperation needs and facilitate the judicial requests to France. More than 18 bilateral meetings took place to discuss ongoing and potential new cases linked to Sky ECC evidence.