The meeting, which was hosted by Eurojust in a hybrid format, was attended by representatives of the European Commission, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Council of Europe (CoE), the European Judicial Network (EJN), the European Cybercrime Training and Education Group (ECTEG), the European Judicial Cybercrime Network (EJCN), the European Cybercrime Centre at Europol (EC3) and the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN).
 

2022 achievements

In 2022, the SIRIUS project, hosted on the Europol Platform for Experts, reached over 7 000 members on its platform. The SIRIUS platform, recognised as a central reference point in the EU for knowledge sharing on cross-border access to electronic evidence, now reaches judicial and law enforcement authorities from all 27 EU Member States, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), and a total of 19 third countries that have a cooperation agreement with Eurojust and/or an operational agreement with Europol.

The event was an opportunity to showcase the products developed within the SIRIUS project over the past year, including new/updated guidelines explaining the procedures for requesting data from specific online service providers (OSPs), numerous knowledge products on applicable national, EU and international legislation and policy developments related to cross-border access to electronic evidence, as well as the fourth edition of the SIRIUS EU Digital Evidence Situation Report.

The participants were also given an overview of the latest training activities, events and tools developed for the SIRIUS community and designed to facilitate investigations for law enforcement and judicial authorities of EU Member States.
 

Future plans

The future activities of the SIRIUS project were discussed in light of the recent legislative and policy developments in the area of cross-border access to electronic evidence. In the year in which the SIRIUS project celebrates its fifth anniversary, there seems to be more need than ever for capacity building and assistance to competent EU authorities as they gather electronic evidence across borders. The SIRIUS project will undoubtedly continue to play a crucial role in this process in 2023.
 

About the SIRIUS project

The SIRIUS project, co-implemented by Eurojust and Europol, is a central reference point in the EU for knowledge sharing on cross-border access to electronic evidence. The SIRIUS project offers a variety of services, such as guidelines, training and tools, to help with accessing data held by OSPs. These services are available to law enforcement and judicial authorities via a platform and an application. To date, the SIRIUS project serves a community of competent authorities from 46 countries, representing all EU Member States and a growing number of third countries.

The SIRIUS project has received funding from the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments under Contribution Agreement No PI/2020/417-500.