Eurojust: Council adopts new rules allowing agency to preserve evidence of war crimes

On 25 May, the Council of the European Union adopted new rules allowing Eurojust to preserve, analyse and store evidence relating to core international crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The introduction of the new rules was required after the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, when numerous reports from Ukraine indicated that the Russian military in Ukraine had committed and were committing crimes against humanity and war crimes. At the same time, ongoing military operations do not allow evidence to be stored safely on Ukrainian territory.

The new rules will allow Eurojust to:

• store and preserve evidence relating to war crimes, including satellite images, photographs, videos, audio recordings, DNA profiles and fingerprints.
• process and analyse this evidence, in close cooperation with Europol, and share the information with the relevant national and international judicial authorities, including the International Criminal Court. 

The text is due to be signed by the European Parliament and the Council on 30 May and promptly published in the Official Journal. It will enter into force on the day following its publication.

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Press release