Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine: Commission welcomes European Parliament’s adoption of Eurojust’s reinforced mandate

On 19 May, the European Parliament adopted the European Commission’s proposal to reinforce Eurojust’s mandate to collect and preserve evidence of war crimes. 

On this occasion, Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová and Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, said the atrocities committed in Ukraine “must not go unpunished”. 

“There is an unprecedented mobilisation of national and international prosecutors working together to bring those responsible to justice. For this, evidence is key. Due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine this evidence is not safe in Ukraine. We need a central back-up storage, where evidence can be securely preserved and assessed,” said Věra Jourová.

The reinforced mandate will allow Eurojust to:

• preserve, analyse and store evidence centrally;
• exchange such evidence with national authorities, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other countries, in full respect of the EU data protection framework;
• process additional types of digital evidence, such as videos, audio-files and satellite images.

EU ministers must now formally approve the amended Eurojust Regulations before they come into force.

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Press release