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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…

On 16 April 2026, the Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered its appeal judgment in Case C-328/24 P, Mincu Pătrașcu Brâncuși v EPPO, concerning a challenge brought by a Romanian national against procedural actions taken by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO).In an …

On 28 April 2026, Europol published the 11th edition of its 2026 Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA). Under the title “The evolving threat landscape: how encryption, proxies and artificial intelligence are expanding cybercrime”, the assessment provides a detailed analysis of significant developments, changes, and emerging threats in cybercrime in 2025.

Introduction EU-US counter-terrorism cooperation has been an area of EU external relations with substantial growth in the recent past. The political momentum for such cooperation was boosted post-9/11 and resulted in the conclusion of a number of international agreements between the European Union and the United States. Concluded primarily under the third pillar, these agreements have been subject to considerable criticism in Europe, both in terms of democracy and legitimacy and in terms of substance and the compatibility of their content with fundamental rights. These issues are now due to be reviewed following the entry into force of the Lisbon…

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…

Einleitung Zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts steht Europa innen- und außenpolitisch vor großen Herausforderungen – die Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise, organisierte Kriminalität, illegale Migration, Terrorismus und der Klimawandel sind nur einige Beispiele, die unsere innere Sicherheit, unseren Frieden und unseren Wohlstand in Europa bedrohen. Erstmals wurden die Unmittelbarkeit und die Brutalität dieser Gefahren durch die Ereignisse des 11. September 2001 sowie die nachfolgenden Terroranschläge in Madrid und London deutlich. Konzeptionell zogen die europäischen Mitgliedstaaten bereits 2003 die Konsequenz und verabschiedeten die Europäische Sicherheitsstrategie (ESS)1, in der sie die Hauptbedrohungen für Europa identifizierten und einen sog. "erweiterten Sicherheitsbegriff" definierten: Aufgrund der neuen…

Before the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union of 1991, the cooperation in matters of internal security took place at the level of international relations between particular Member States − in the legal sense, outside the European Communities.1 The Treaty on European Union formed the architecture of European integration by attaching different forms of intergovernmental cooperation to Community policies. In this way, the three-pillar system was established. The cooperation between the EU Member States was described as “the cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs.” This area includes police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters…

Introduction The Lisbon Treaty aims at further developing an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers, and the prevention and combating of crime is seen as one of the premises in order to strengthen the creation of such an area (Article 3 TEU). Member States are faced with crises of criminality in the era of globalisation: following economic and social trends, crime tends to assume a transnational dimension and a complex structure, and individual States cannot manage to deal with this phenomenon. Moreover, freedom of circulation within the EU can lead to further difficulties in fighting criminality. This…

Dear Readers, The Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force at the end of 2009, mandates the Union to establish a true European area of justice reinforcing mutual trust and enabling mutual recognition of Member States’ judicial decisions. This will require, among other considerations, elements as diverse as the strengthening of Eurojust, the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), the reform of the European Anti Fraud Office (Office Européen de la Lutte Anti-Fraude − OLAF), and common minimum standards in the justice process (such as fair trial rights, fair prison conditions, and rights for victims of crime). At the…