The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the report by Malik AZMANI (Renew Europe, NL) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a collaboration platform to support the functioning of Joint Investigation Teams and amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1726.

The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:

Subject matter

With a view to enhancing international cooperation and information exchange on crimes affecting international peace and safety, Members proposed that the draft Regulation should include the possibility to allow for participation of specialised customs Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) created under the Naples II convention, provided that they function in the context of a criminal investigation while under the supervision of a judicial authority.

Scope

According to Members, the proposed Regulation should apply to the operational and post-operational phases of a JIT, starting from the moment the relevant JIT agreement is signed by its members until all operational and non-operational data of that JIT has been removed from the central storage of the JITs collaboration platform.

Responsibilities of the JITs Network Secretariat

New responsibilities of the JITs Network Secretariat should support the functioning of the JITs collaboration platform by:

- providing, at the request of the JIT space administrator or administrators, administrative, legal, and technical support in the context of the setup and access rights management of individual JIT collaboration spaces;

- providing day-to-day guidance, functional support, and assistance to practitioners on the use of the JITs collaboration platform and its functionalities;

- designing and providing training- and outreach modules for national authorities aiming to promote and facilitate the use of the JITs collaboration platform;

- enhancing a culture of cooperation within the Union in relation to international cooperation in criminal matters by raising awareness and promoting the use of the JITs collaboration platform among practitioners, and by collecting their feedback on its practical use;

- keeping, after the start of operations of the JITs collaboration platform, eu-LISA informed of additional technical requirements of the system by drafting an annual report on the potential improvements of the platform based on the feedback it receives from users.

Access to the JIT collaboration spaces by competent Union bodies, offices and agencies and by international judicial authorities participating in a JIT

Again, new provisions have been included which allow for the participation of international judicial authorities access to a JIT collaboration space for the purpose of fulfilling cooperation objectives included in the relevant JIT agreement.

Security

The amended text stipulated that eu-LISA should adopt a security plan, a business continuity and disaster recovery plan, to ensure that the centralised information system may, in case of interruption, be restored. eu-LISA should provide for a working arrangement with the Computer Emergency Response Team for the Union’s institutions, bodies and agencies (CERT-EU) and shall adopt the security plan in consultation with the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA).

Data protection

As soon as the process of downloading is completed by all intended JITs collaboration platform users or upon expiry of the retention period, the data should be automatically and permanently erased from the centralised system.

Regarding data uploaded to the JITs collaboration platform by the competent authorities of third countries, it is proposed that one of the JIT space administrators, as designated in the JIT agreement upon signing, is to be nominated data controller as regards the personal data exchanged through and stored in the JITs collaboration platform.

Where no single administrator is named as data controller in the JIT agreement, all JIT space administrators should act as joint controllers as regards the personal data exchanged through and stored in the JITs collaboration platform.

The JITs collaboration platform users should be joint controllers for the processing of non-operational personal data in the JITs collaboration platform, the fact of which should be underlined in the JIT agreement.

Monitoring and evaluation plans

It is proposed that eu-LISA should also establish procedures to monitor and measure the effectiveness of the JITs collaboration platform as regards the scope, the efficiency, and the usability of the platform.

For the sake of transparency , the report submitted to the Commission by eu-LISA on the technical functioning of the JITs cooperation platform, including its security should be made publicly available according to Members. Two years (as opposed to the Commission’s four years) after the start of operations of the JITs collaboration platform and every two years thereafter, the Commission should conduct an overall evaluation of the JITs collaboration platform.

The amended text proposed that the Member States’ competent authorities, Eurojust, Europol, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, OLAF and other competent Union bodies, offices and agencies should draft a monitoring and evaluation plan regarding their use of the JITs collaboration platform, including reporting requirements the feedback of which will be collected by the JITs Network Secretariat, in order to provide eu-LISA and the Commission with the information necessary to draft their reports.

State of operation

Lastly, Members proposed advancing the start of operations of the JITs collaboration platform to 1 January 2025 at the latest.

PURPOSE: to establish a dedicated IT platform to support the functioning of the Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) – the JITs collaboration platform.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) are set up by two or more States and possibly non-EU countries for specific criminal investigations with a cross border impact and for a limited period of time. A JIT can be set up, in particular, when a Member State's investigations into criminal offences require difficult and demanding investigations having links with other Member States or third countries. JITs are one of the most successful tools for cross-border investigations and prosecutions in the EU. They enable direct cooperation and communication between judicial and law enforcement authorities of several States to organise their actions and investigations to efficiently investigate cross-border cases.

Although JITs have proven to be one of the most successful tools for cross-border investigations and prosecutions in the EU, practice shows they have been facing several technical difficulties preventing them from gaining the highest possible efficiency. The main difficulties concern secure electronic exchange of information and evidence (including large files), secure electronic communication with other JIT members and JIT participants, such as Eurojust, Europol and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), as well as a joint daily management of a JIT.

PURPOSE: with a view to remedying these technical difficulties, the Commission proposal seeks to establish a dedicated IT platform , to be used on a voluntary basis, to support the functioning of JITs – the JITs collaboration platform.

Scope

The proposal:

- lays down rules on the division of responsibilities between the JITs collaboration platform users and the agency responsible for the development and maintenance of the JITs collaboration platform;

- sets out conditions, under which the JITs collaboration platform users may be granted access to the JITs collaboration platform;

- lays down specific data protection provisions needed to supplement the existing data protection arrangements and to provide for an adequate overall level of data protection, data security and protection of the fundamental rights of the persons concerned.

Objectives

The general objective of the proposal is to provide technological support to those involved in JITs to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their cross-border investigations and prosecutions.

The specific objectives of the proposal are to:

- ensure that the members and participants of JITs can more easily share information and evidence collected in the course of the JIT activities;

- ensure that the members and participants of JITs can more easily and more safely communicate with each other in the context of the JIT activities;

- facilitate the joint daily management of a JIT, including planning and coordination of parallel activities, enhanced traceability of shared evidence and coordination with third countries, especially where physical meetings are too expansive or time consuming.

Key functions

The JITs collaboration platform will offer the following key functions:

- secure, untraceable communication stored locally on the devices of the users, including a communication tool offering an instant messaging system, a chat feature, audio/video-conferencing and a function replacing standard emails;

- exchange of information and evidence, including large files, through an upload/download system designed to store the data centrally only for the limited time needed to technically transfer the data. As soon as the data are downloaded by all addresses, it would be automatically deleted from the platform;

- evidence traceability – an advanced logging mechanism logging a trail of who did what and when regarding all evidence shared through the platform and supporting the need to ensure admissibility of evidence before a court.

Access rights

The JITs collaboration platform will be accessible to all actors involved in JIT proceedings, i.e. Member States’ representatives fulfilling the role of members of a given JIT, representatives of third countries invited to cooperate in the context of a given JIT, and the competent Union bodies, offices and agencies such as Eurojust, Europol, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and OLAF.

Monitoring

The design, development, technical management and maintenance of the JIT collaboration platform will be entrusted to the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA). Four years after the start of the JITs collaboration platform’s operations and every four years after that, the Commission will conduct an overall evaluation of the JITs collaboration platform.

Budgetary implications

The costs incurred to establish and operate the JITs collaboration platform must be borne by the general budget of the Union.

eu-LISA costs : the following financial and human resources are proposed to develop, maintain and operate the JITs collaboration platform: (i) one-off build cost – EUR 8.4 million; (ii) annual maintenance and operation cost – EUR 1.7 million; (iii) staff – 4 as of 2024, 4 as of 2025 and 2 as of 2026 (10 in total). The costs for eu-LISA apply to hosting the platform in its operational site in Strasbourg/France and the back-up site in Sankt Johann/Austria.

Eurojust (including the JIT Secretariat) : this would require the following financial and human resources: (i) for development maintenance and operations of the required technical adaptations of Eurojust IT systems, i.e. JITs funding, JITs evaluation and JITs restricted area, in order to partially integrate them with the platform: EUR 0.250 million in 2025 (one-off) and 1 technical profile – as of 2025 onwards; (ii) for administrative support of the JIT Secretariat to the platform’s users on behalf of JIT space administrator(s): 2 posts as of 2026 onwards.