Dear Readers,

Aled Williams I am delighted to introduce this issue of eucrim, which is devoted to the external dimension of EU criminal justice. The importance of the topic is clear. A young woman stands on a street corner in an industrial town somewhere in the EU. She has been trafficked into the Union from a thousand kilometres outside its borders for sexual exploitation. She has a drug habit which feeds on cocaine shipped halfway across the world. Her exploiters channel the profits from her virtual slavery (and that of many others) through financial transactions that span the globe, corrupting and undermining institutions in doing so. Her presence creates danger and insecurity in the EU neighbourhoods where rival groups compete to monopolise “supply” from outside the Union. The effects of organised crime are felt locally and in individual misery. However, it is a commonplace that, to organised criminal groups, crime is not local but global. For them, borders are only significant if they make the commission of offences or, importantly, their investigation and prosecution more difficult. The decision of the eucrim editors to consider the external dimension of EU criminal justice is timely. Awareness of the external dimension to EU criminal justice is not new. For example, since its inception in 2002 as the judicial cooperation unit of the EU, Eurojust has had the power to conclude agreements with third countries and organisations. There have been many concrete results of these agreements, including the presence of prosecutors from Croatia, Norway, and the USA at Eurojust to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of crime affecting the EU from outside its borders. However, recent developments make the external dimension of EU criminal justice even more significant. The Stockholm Programme, building on the changes to the EU legal landscape introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, has devoted a chapter to the external dimension of freedom, security and justice. The crucial recognition is that “addressing threats, even far away from our continent, is essential to protecting Europe and its citizens.” Whether in combating terrorism, trafficking in human beings, or trafficking in drugs, internal security and external security are inseparable. From this follows the need for a common vision and cooperation between the European institutions involved in the external dimension of the EU. In practical terms, this means that the relevant bodies identified in the Stockholm Programme (Eurojust, Europol, Frontex, CEPOL, the Lisbon Drugs Observatory, and the European Asylum Support Office) must work closely together to ensure coherence and complementarity of effort, for example before and during negotiations of agreements with external partners. Against this background, the revised Eurojust Decision published in 2009, provides an illustration of the importance of the external dimension of EU criminal justice. Among other changes, it introduces a new power for the posting of liaison magistrates to third states. Under current arrangements, liaison magistrates act bilaterally: they are posted for the benefit of the Member State which seconds them. Subject to Council approval and appropriate data protection safeguards, in the future the Eurojust liaison magistrate will be able to act for the benefit of all EU Member States and citizens. Practical work in meeting external threats is, of course, already ongoing. In a recent case, a drug trafficking network operating from Italy but with links to 42 countries worldwide was disrupted with the help of Eurojust and Europol. In September 2010, again in close coordination with Europol, Eurojust supported the national authorities from 11 Member States, together with Norway and Croatia in the dismantling of a significant criminal network exploiting intellectual property rights (with a potential loss of €6 billion within the EU) through global internet access. Close cooperation between national and EU bodies is the precondition for success in meeting external threats. eucrim has established itself as an important forum where issues central to the future of EU criminal justice can be explored. I am confident that this issue on its external dimension will be a useful contribution to the discussion.