Right of access

Citizens of the European Union and any other natural or legal person residing or having a registered office in a Member State have, subject to certain principles, conditions and limits, a right of access to documents produced or held by Eurojust, as well as all EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies, with refusal to grant access only permissible in exceptional circumstances.

Please consult the following tabs for more information on the general principles governing the right of access to Eurojust documents, the different ways of accessing documents, the options for making a request for access, the conditions of access, and the possibility to submit confirmatory applications.

Principles of access

The general principles governing the right of access to documents:

General, unconditional right of access for everyone; applicants do not need to justify their requests.
Right of access applies to any document that relates to policies, activities and decisions falling within the responsibility of Eurojust, and includes all publication formats and media.
Access to Eurojust documents can only be refused in exceptional circumstances (for more information, see below), and any refusal of access must be fully justified in accordance with Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and the Council which applies to documents held by Eurojust by virtue of Article 74(1) of the Eurojust Regulation. Classified documents are subject to special conditions.
Exceptions may only be made after evaluation on a case-by-case basis.
Eurojust must offer the widest possible access to documents. The possibility of partial access must also be considered.

The College of Eurojust adopted detailed rules for applying Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on 7 December 2021. See College Decision 2021-12 of 7 December 2021 on the adoption of rules for implementing Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on public access to documents.

Document access options

Eurojust has a Public Register that can be used to access documents directly. The Publications section of this website also lists the most important Eurojust documents (legal framework, annual reports, etc.) in an accessible format and with translations if available.

If a Eurojust document has not been published on or cannot be downloaded from the Public Register, an individual can ask to have access to it.

How to request access

Any citizen of the European Union and any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in a Member State can make a request.

The application shall be made in writing with sufficient precision so as to enable Eurojust to identify the document(s) requested.

Applications for access to documents can be submitted:

via the online contact form
by mail to the following postal address, to the attention of ‘Head of the Legal Affairs Unit’:

Eurojust
P.O. Box 16183
2500 BD The Hague
The Netherlands

The procedure can take up to 15 working days from registration. This deadline can be extended by a further 15 working days in exceptional circumstances.

Conditions of access

The principle is that the widest possible access to all documents held by Eurojust should be granted, with refusal only occurring in exceptional circumstances (for more information, consult Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001). If an exception is justified, it will be examined to see whether it applies to the whole document or whether partial access to a document can be granted.

Confirmatory applications

If a request for access to documents is refused or partially refused, it may be possible to make a ‘confirmatory’ application (i.e. a second request) to Eurojust. Processing this can take up to 15 working days, and, in exceptional cases, up to 30 working days.

For further details on the principles, conditions and limitations of right of access, please refer to the College Decision 2021-12 of 7 December 2021 on the adoption of rules for implementing Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on public access to documents.