The Second Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention) on enhanced cooperation and disclosure of electronic evidence (Protocol) aims to enhance cooperation among the Parties, as well as between the Parties and service providers and other entities, for obtaining disclosure of electronic evidence for the purpose of criminal investigations or proceedings. The Protocol was opened for signature by the Parties to the Budapest Convention in May 2022. An important provision of the Second Protocol aimed at enhancing cooperation between the Parties is Article 9. Article 9 requires Parties to adopt the necessary measures for their 24/7 Network points of contact established under Article 35 of the Budapest Convention to transmit and receive requests from any point of contact in another Party seeking immediate assistance in obtaining from a service provider in their territory the expedited disclosure of specified, stored computer data in that service provider’s possession or control, without a request for mutual assistance.

This document analyses the toolbox which will be available to competent authorities under Article 9 of the Protocol, including the types of crime, data, and entities covered; the definition of “emergency” under the Protocol; and requirements for requests under Article 9 and their transmission. It also contains a comparison matrix between Article 9 and Article 10 of the Protocol, both of which oblige Parties to provide specific channels for rapidly expedited cooperation in emergency situations.

The document was prepared within the framework of the SIRIUS Project. The SIRIUS Project has received funding from the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments under Contribution Agreement No PI/2020/417-500.