The German Desk is headed by Jan MacLean, who is the National Member for Germany since July 2022.
In 2023, the German Desk was involved in 1 643 new cases, 170 coordination meetings, 16 coordination centres, and 56 joint investigation teams.
The German Desk is headed by Jan MacLean, who is the National Member for Germany since July 2022.
In 2023, the German Desk was involved in 1 643 new cases, 170 coordination meetings, 16 coordination centres, and 56 joint investigation teams.
Jan MacLean was appointed National Member for Germany in July 2022. Prior to joining Eurojust, from 2017, Mr MacLean was Deputy to the Permanent Representative of Germany at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, focusing on judicial cooperation and the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. Previously, he worked as Head of Division at the Ministry of Justice, responsible for economic crime law and criminal procedures.
In between, in 2012 and 2014, Mr MacLean was seconded by the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ) as Resident Twinning Advisor to the Kosovo* Ministry of Justice. Between 2007 and 2011, he was involved in the negotiations on the revision of the then-Eurojust Decision as a counsellor at the German Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels.
Prior to this role, Mr MacLean worked as a counsellor in both the German Justice and Interior Ministries focusing on international legal cooperation in criminal matters and combatting Islamic terrorism and extremism. In 2001, he served for one year as a counsellor on civil aspects of child abduction at the German Office of the Federal Public Prosecutor. He started his career as a judge at the Regional Court of Berlin after graduating in law from Heidelberg University.
Selina Ganescu is the Deputy National Member since January 2020. She previously worked as the Assistant to the National Member for Germany from February 2018 until December 2019. Prior to joining Eurojust, she worked as a Senior Public Prosecutor at the Prosecutor General's Office in Düsseldorf in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. She is extensively experienced in fighting crimes concerning sexual abuse of children, trafficking of human beings and drug trafficking.
The German Desk is currently supported by 4 Assistants to the National Member and 1 Seconded National Expert.
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
Please do not use this form if you want to provide any operational and personal data to the competent national desk. Such information should be communicated by the domestic judicial authorities to their National Member (National Desk) directly through the appropriate official channels.
2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New cases (total) | 610 | 698 | 945 | 1083 | 1400 | 1637 | 1643 |
Coordination meetings (initiating and/or participating) | 94 | 103 | 125 | 99 | 128 | 152 | 170 |
Coordination centres (organising and/or participating) | 8 | 10 | 11 | 7 | 13 | 6 | 16 |
Joint investigation teams (newly signed and/or ongoing) | 7 | 34 | 45 | 54 | 55 | 53 | 56 |
Crime: Illegal emission devices are placed in more than 210 000 diesel cars produced by 2 South Korean companies. The devices are responsible for interfering with or disabling exhaust gas cleaning mechanisms, causing the vehicles to emit significantly more nitrogen oxides while in operation than legally permitted. Customers buying the vehicles are deceived as they are not informed that the vehicles fail to meet the emissions requirements.
Action: In an action day coordinated by Eurojust on 28 June 2022, business premises in eight properties across Germany and Luxembourg are searched. The searches are carried out by approximately 180 investigators in Germany, and 14 investigators in Luxembourg.
Result: Various pieces of evidence, including communication data, software and planning documents are seized.
Eurojust's Role: Eurojust enables the cooperation of the national authorities involved during the action day.
Crime: An international OCG commits online investment fraud by convincing victims online and by telephone to make payments to invest in cryptocurrencies. The OCG uses a large-scale IT infrastructure that includes tens of virtual servers, connected by computers in call centres.
The perpetrators install remote access programmes that allow them to illegally access the victims’ computers and steal their banking credentials. More than 30 000 people from around 71 countries (with roughly 522 victims registered in Estonia alone) are defrauded of at least EUR 20 million.
Action: Authorities in Finland, the Netherlands, Latvia, France, Germany and Ukraine support a joint operation on 21 April 2022 to disrupt and paralyse the criminal activities of the OCG.
Result: More than 50 servers are seized (taken down and data copied), in Finland, the Netherlands, Latvia, France and Germany.
Eurojust's Role: Eurojust facilitates judicial cooperation by setting up and funding a JIT. Two coordination meetings are organised to coordinate the national investigations and prepare for the action day. To support the action day, Eurojust sets up a coordination centre to enable rapid cooperation between the involved judicial authorities.