At the JHA Council meeting on 7 June 2021, the Ministers for Justice discussed the key challenges to a well-functioning public prosecution service and how the JHA Council could engage in a more specific discussion on the topic. Discussions referred to a paper of the Portuguese Council Presidency on the “key elements for the public prosecution services including as regards judicial cooperation in criminal matters.” The paper stresses the particular importance of public prosecution services for the proper functioning of the criminal justice system, effective prosecutions, and judicial cooperation in criminal matters between Member States. Ministers discussed the necessity of independence of prosecution services. They also stressed that the digitalisation of justice, adequate human and financial resources for prosecution services, and (generally) the strengthening of the resilience of justice systems are further key challenges for well-functioning public prosecution services in the EU.

The discussion on this topic was held against the background of the structured dialogue on justice-specific aspects of the rule-of-law debate. The independence and performance of public prosecution services are part of the EU’s Judicial Scoreboard (→ eucrim 2/2020, 74-75) and the recently introduced regular rule of law reports from the European Commission (→ eucrim 3/2020, 158-159).