'Eurojust' (also spelled capitalised as 'EUROJUST') is a
European Union body composed of national
prosecutors,
magistrates or police officers of equivalent competence from each of the European Union's member states. Its task is to enhance the effectiveness of the national authorities when they are dealing with the investigation and prosecution of cross-border and
organised crime.
Creation
Eurojust was established as a result of a decision that the
European Council of
Tampere (15-16 October
1999) made a decision to establish a permanent judicial co-operation Unit called Eurojust in order to improve the fight against serious crime.
In
14 December 2000, the
Council of the European Union formally established a provisional judicial co-operation Unit with the name of 'Pro-Eurojust' to be Eurojust's forerunner. Its purpose was to be a sort of round table of
prosecutors from all member states to enable concepts of Eurojust to be tried and tested. Pro-Eurojust started work on
1 March,
2001.
Eurojust itself was established in
2002.
External links
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Official site
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Assessment of Eurojust's case load of human trafficking cases
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Brussels seeks more powers for EU crime body - EU Observer