The first issue of eucrim was published in September 2006. With the present issue, eucrim celebrates a 20-year success story. This anniversary provides an opportunity to look back, take stock, and look ahead. I. The history of eucrim is closely linked to the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests in the early 1990s. The growing budgets of the Communities led to a significant rise in fraud. In particular, the spectacular “Greek maize” case in the late 1980s showed that some Member States had little interest in prosecuting these offences against the Community at the national level, particularly since any… Read more

Dear Readers, Looking back at the last 20 years, the European Union has taken substantial strides towards establishing a specific legal framework to ensure the rights of defendants in criminal proceedings – as set out in its secondary law, underpinned by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. In parallel, the rights of crime victims – long given secondary consideration – have been strengthened across Member States in accordance with EU law, for example, in the newly revised Victims’ Rights Directive. While there have been welcome achievements, it remains crucial that the EU continues its efforts to ensure the effective implementation… Read more

Dear Readers, This eucrim issue provides insights into various aspects of state surveillance, a subject that has long engaged both the public and the legal community. Rapid technological advances, political initiatives, and landmark rulings by the highest national and European courts have fueled this interest. Digitalisation and the (seemingly) boundless potential of artificial intelligence provide new opportunities for data mining and analysis that can be (mis-)used for the surveillance of citizens, with potentially unprecedented consequences for those targeted. Prominent examples of the potential impact of contemporary surveillance practices, based on the retrieval, transfer, and processing of personal data through forensic… Read more

Dear Readers, According to the Japanese scholar and art historian Kakuzō Okakura, “The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.” This call for gradual and prudent reform can serve as a guiding principle for judicial cooperation and is particularly well-suited to the role that our agency, Eurojust, plays. The current system of judicial cooperation and mutual recognition, and Eurojust, are, in the meantime, the grown-up children of the 1999 Tampere Programme. Decades of experience show that, in principle, they are working well. In matters of cooperation, this is illustrated by the experience gathered in our daily… Read more

Dear Readers, While internal and external security remain key priorities for the European Union, they require constant adaptation to the evolving crime situation and geopolitical context. As the April 2025 EU Security Strategy (ProtectEU) puts it, the current threat landscape is stark: the line between hybrid threats and open warfare is becoming increasingly blurred, and hostile states are waging hybrid campaigns against the EU across online and offline domains to disrupt our societal cohesion and democratic processes. As Europol outlines, powerful organised crime networks are proliferating in Europe, most with extra-EU connections, penetrating our economy and affecting our society. Cryptocurrencies… Read more

Dear Readers, Over two decades have passed since the EU’s first attempt to harmonise procedural rights in criminal proceedings across the bloc. The 2009 Roadmap, adopted under the Swedish Council Presidency, led to six key directives: on interpretation and translation, information rights, access to a lawyer, presumption of innocence and the right to be present at trial, safeguards for children, and legal aid. Two recommendations followed, addressing vulnerable persons and pre-trial detention conditions. Yet, despite these advances, the EU still lacks a coherent and equal system of procedural rights. While the existing instruments might give the impression of a developing… Read more