{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2009-426/introduction",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2009-426/introduction.json",
  "legislation": "eudn/2009/426",
  "legislation_title": "Council Decision 2009/426/JHA of 16 December 2008 on the strengthening of Eurojust and amending Decision 2002/187/JHA setting up Eurojust with a view to reinforcing the fight against serious crime",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2009-426",
  "path": "introduction",
  "kind": "introduction",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Introductory text",
  "text": "Council Decision 2009/426/JHA\nof 16 December 2008\non the strengthening of Eurojust and amending Decision 2002/187/JHA setting up Eurojust with a view to reinforcing the fight against serious crime\nTHE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,\nHaving regard to the Treaty on European Union, and in particular Articles 31(2) and 34(2)(c) thereof,\nHaving regard to the initiative of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, the Italian Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Poland, the Portuguese Republic, the Republic of Slovenia, the Slovak Republic and the Kingdom of Sweden,\nHaving regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament,\nWhereas:\n(1)\nEurojust was set up by Council Decision 2002/187/JHA as a body of the European Union with legal personality to stimulate and to improve coordination and cooperation between competent judicial authorities of the Member States.\n(2)\nOn the basis of an assessment of the experience gained by Eurojust, a further enhancement of its operational effectiveness is needed by taking account of that experience.\n(3)\nThe time has come to ensure that Eurojust becomes more operational and that the status of national members is approximated.\n(4)\nIn order to ensure continuous and effective contribution from the Member States to the achievement by Eurojust of its objectives, the national member should be required to have his regular place of work at the seat of Eurojust.\n(5)\nIt is necessary to define a common basis of powers which every national member should have in his capacity as a competent national authority acting in accordance with national law. Some of these powers should be granted to the national member for urgent cases where it is not possible for him to identify or to contact the competent national authority in a timely manner. It is understood that these powers will not have to be exercised in so far as it is possible to identify and to contact the competent authority.\n(6)\nThis Decision does not affect the manner in which the Member States organise their internal judicial system or administrative procedures for the designation of the national member and the setting up of the internal working of the national desks at Eurojust.\n(7)\nThe setting up of an On-Call Coordination (OCC) within Eurojust is necessary to make Eurojust available around the clock and to enable it to intervene in urgent cases. It should be the responsibility of each Member State to ensure that their representatives in the OCC are able to act on a 24-hour/7-day basis.\n(8)\nMember States should ensure that competent national authorities respond without undue delay to requests made under this Decision, even if competent national authorities refuse to comply with requests made by the national member.\n(9)\nThe role of the College should be enhanced in cases of conflict of jurisdiction and in cases of recurrent refusals or difficulties concerning the execution of requests for, and decisions on, judicial cooperation, including regarding instruments giving effect to the principle of mutual recognition.\n(10)\nEurojust national coordination systems should be set up in the Member States to coordinate the work carried out by the national correspondents for Eurojust, the national correspondent for Eurojust for terrorism matters, the national correspondent for the European Judicial Network and up to three other contact points of the European Judicial Network, as well as representatives in the Networks for Joint Investigation Teams, War Crimes, Asset Recovery and Corruption.\n(11)\nThe Eurojust national coordination system should ensure that the Case Management System receives information related to the Member State concerned in an efficient and reliable manner. However, the Eurojust national coordination system should not have to be responsible for actually transmitting information to Eurojust. Member States should decide on the best channel to be used for the transmission of information to Eurojust.\n(12)\nIn order to enable the Eurojust national coordination system to fulfil its tasks, a connection to the Case Management System should be ensured. The connection to the Case Management System should be made taking due account of national information technology systems. Access to the Case Management System at national level should be based on the central role played by the national member who is responsible for the opening and management of temporary work files.\n(13)\nCouncil Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA of 27 November 2008 on the protection of personal data processed in the framework of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters is applicable to the processing by the Member States of the personal data transferred between the Member States and Eurojust. The relevant set of data protection provisions of Decision 2002/187/JHA will not be affected by Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA and contains specific provisions on the protection of personal data regulating these matters in more detail because of the particular nature, functions and competences of Eurojust.\n(14)\nEurojust should be authorised to process certain personal data on persons who, under the national legislation of the Member States concerned, are suspected of having committed or having taken part in a criminal offence in respect of which Eurojust is competent, or who have been convicted of such an offence. The list of such personal data should include telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, vehicle registration data, DNA profiles established from the non-coding part of DNA, photographs and fingerprints. The list should also include traffic data and location data and the related data necessary to identify the subscriber or user of a publicly available electronic communications service; this should not include data revealing the content of the communication. It is not intended that Eurojust carry out an automated comparison of DNA profiles or fingerprints.\n(15)\nEurojust should be given the opportunity to extend the deadlines for storage of personal data in order to achieve its objectives. Such decisions should be taken following careful consideration of particular needs. Any extension of deadlines for processing personal data, where prosecution is statute barred in all Member States concerned, should be decided only where there is a specific need to provide assistance under this Decision.\n(16)\nThe Rules on the Joint Supervisory Body should facilitate its functioning.\n(17)\nWith a view to increasing the operational effectiveness of Eurojust, transmission of information to Eurojust should be improved by providing clear and limited obligations for national authorities.\n(18)\nEurojust should implement priorities set by the Council, in particular those set on the basis of the Organised Crime Threat Assessment (OCTA), as referred to in the Hague Programme.\n(19)\nEurojust is to maintain privileged relations with the European Judicial Network based on consultation and complementarity. This Decision should help clarify the respective roles of Eurojust and the European Judicial Network and their mutual relations, while maintaining the specificity of the European Judicial Network.\n(20)\nNothing in this Decision should be construed to affect the autonomy of the secretariats of the networks mentioned in this Decision when they discharge their function as Eurojust staff in accordance with the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities laid down by Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/68 of the Council.\n(21)\nIt is also necessary to strengthen Eurojust’s capacity to work with external partners, such as third States, the European Police Office (Europol), the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the Council’s Joint Situation Centre and the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex).\n(22)\nProvision should be made for Eurojust to post liaison magistrates to third States in order to achieve objectives similar to those assigned to liaison magistrates seconded by the Member States on the basis of Council Joint Action 96/277/JHA of 22 April 1996 concerning a framework for the exchange of liaison magistrates to improve judicial cooperation between the Member States of the European Union.\n(23)\nThis Decision allows the principle of public access to official documents to be taken into account,\nHAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "Opinion delivered on 2 September 2008 (not yet published in the Official Journal)."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "OJ L 63, 6.3.2002, p. 1."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f3",
      "text": "OJ L 350, 30.12.2008, p. 60."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f4",
      "text": "OJ C 53, 3.3.2005, p. 1."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f5",
      "text": "OJ L 56, 4.3.1968, p. 1."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f6",
      "text": "OJ L 105, 27.4.1996, p. 1."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2009/426/introduction",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-11-01T15:16:29.131457+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}