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TEXT 17. THE HISTORY OF EUROJUST
Eurojust was established as a result of a decision taken by the European Council of Tampere, held in October 1999. The European Council held a special meeting dedicated to the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice in the European Union; this would be achieved by concentrating on establishing a more uniform immigration and asylum policy based on solidarity and on the reinforcement of the fight against trans-border crime by consolidating cooperation among authorities.
To reinforce the fight against serious organised crime, the European Council, in its Conclusion 46, agreed that a unit (Eurojust) should be set up, composed of national prosecutors, magistrates, or police officers of equivalent competence, detached from each Member State according to their own legal systems.
On 14 December 2000, a provisional judicial cooperation unit was set up under the name Pro-Eurojust, operating from the Council building in Brussels. This was Eurojust's forerunner, whose purpose was to be a sort of round table of prosecutors from all Member States, where Eurojust’s concepts would be tried and tested. Pro-Eurojust started work on 1 March 2001 under the Swedish Presidency of the European Union.
The attacks of 11 September showed that the phenomenon of terrorism was not limited to the national or regional sphere and that the fight against terrorism must be coordinated in the widest international context. This thought served as a catalyst to setting up a judicial coordination unit, and Eurojust was established in 2002 by Council Decision 2002/187/JHA.
In the first half of 2002, during the Spanish Presidency of the EU, many important stepping stones were laid: the Eurojust Decision was published on 28 February, the budget was released in May, and the Rules of Procedure were agreed upon in June.
On 29 April 2003, Eurojust moved to its final seat, in The Hague (NL). Shortly after its establishment, Eurojust faced the challenge of the European Union enlargement: in May 2004, ten new National Members joined the College, and in January 2007 two more were added, bringing the total number to 27.
Since the enlargement, Eurojust has been very active in working towards signing cooperation agreements allowing the exchange of judicial information and personal data. Agreements were concluded with Europol, OLAF, CEPOL, the European Judicial Training Network, UNODC, Iber-RED, Iceland, Romania, Norway, the USA, Croatia, Switzerland, and fYROM. Liaison prosecutors from Norway and the USA are permanently based at Eurojust.
In addition to cooperation agreements, Eurojust also maintains a network of contact points worldwide.
Since 2000, Eurojust has grown tremendously and so have its operational tasks and involvement in European judicial cooperation. This is why more powers and a revised set of rules became necessary.
In July 2008, the French Presidency approved the New Council Decision on the Strengthening of Eurojust, which was voted on in December 2008 and published on 4 June 2009.
The new Decision’s purpose is to enhance the operational capabilities of Eurojust, increase the exchange of information between the interested parties, facilitate and strengthen cooperation between national authorities and Eurojust, and strengthen and establish relationships with partners and third States.