The number of coordination meetings facilitated by Eurojust each year has increased steadily over the past 4 years, with a total of 579 coordination meetings organised in 2023. During the year, the Agency organised coordination meetings to tackle all crime types. The highest number of coordination meetings were organised to discuss cases concerning money laundering (136), followed by swindling and fraud (128), drug trafficking (105) and cybercrime (80). The number of coordination meetings organised on cybercrime cases almost doubled from 42 in 2022 to 80 in 2023. There was also an increase in the number of coordination meetings facilitated by the Agency in 2023 compared to the previous year in the areas of fraud (11%), organised crime (44%) and intellectual property crime (50%).

Eurojust supports international operation against tax evasion through sham contracts

Crime: A group of suspects are allegedly involved in tax evasion. The perpetrators conclude sham contracts with subcontractors in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to conceal employment relationships in Germany. They also allegedly exploit the different minimum wage standards in the European Union Member States concerned to evade millions of euros in taxes.

Action: Eurojust supports the competent authorities in Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in a coordinated action.

Result: During a joint operation in October 2023, 39 business premises and apartments are simultaneously searched in all countries involved, and several witnesses are questioned.

Eurojust's Role: The case was opened at Eurojust in May 2023 at the request of the German law enforcement authorities. The Agency hosted three coordination meetings and facilitated the execution of several European Investigation Orders (EIOs). Eurojust facilitated the communication, exchange of information and coordination between the national authorities in real-time during the joint action day.

Coordination meetings were crucial to the success of this operation. They were instrumental in discussing the criminal proceedings and the results of the execution of the EIOs. They also allowed the concerned judicial authorities to agree on the next steps in the exchange of information and cooperation, as well as on operational matters and logistic arrangements for the joint action day. These essential meetings allowed judicial authorities to agree on a common investigative strategy, on how to deal with any situations that might arise during the action day and on the necessary steps to be taken following the operation.

Coordination centres and joint action days

Coordination centres are a crucial component in Eurojust’s judicial toolkit to tackle organised cross-border crime. They enable the coordination of joint action days organised against criminal organisations and terrorist groups, during which arrests, searches, interviews of suspects and witnesses, seizures of evidence and freezing of assets are executed in several countries simultaneously. They are key to achieving successful prosecutions and ensuring justice is done.

Coordination centres are set up from dedicated rooms equipped with state-of-the-art technology and/or virtually via videoconference facilities to ensure that evidence and information collected on the ground are swiftly exchanged between all involved national authorities in a secure environment.

This essential tool enables the timely transmission of judicial requests prior to and during the joint action day through Eurojust’s National Desks and Liaison Prosecutors. Coordination centres allow the joint action day to be monitored in real-time, so that legal and practical advice can be given and new and/or additional judicial instruments can be provided as the operations progress. Moreover, they also enable the swift exchange of information on any legal or operational issues that may have a direct impact on ongoing operations and on the results of the action day.

* These crime types cannot be summed up, since more than one sub-category may apply to a single case.

The data contained in this table were extracted from Eurojust's CMS on 19 January 2024. Due to the ongoing nature of cases, possible discrepancies with previously reported numbers may exist, and statistics may be updated in the future.

In 2023, 42% of the coordination centres facilitated by Eurojust tackled economic crime. Drug trafficking represented the next crime type for which the most coordination centres (seven) were organised, followed by cybercrime, which increased from only one coordination centre in 2022 to five in 2023. One coordination centre was organised for a migrant smuggling case and environmental crime case respectively. The total number of coordination centres organised in 2023 remained the same as in the previous year.

Responsiveness is essential for coordination centres to be effective. In May 2023, Eurojust set a new record in the Agency’s history of organising coordination centres by successfully setting one up in just three days. The establishment of the coordination centre was urgently requested by the Agency’s Italian National Desk to prepare and carry out an action day related to money laundering. The action day against the organised crime group was managed in real-time from the Agency’s dedicated coordination centre.

Another example of a Eurojust-supported case that made full use of the Agency’s suite of judicial tools and services, including a coordination centre, is the largest-ever coordinated hit against the Italian OCG ’Ndrangheta, in May 2023. In addition to establishing and funding 2 joint investigation teams, the Agency hosted 10 coordination meetings and set up a coordination centre that enabled rapid cooperation between the judicial authorities of the 10 countries involved in the action day. Thanks to the effectiveness and efficiency of the coordination meetings and coordination centre, the action day was successful in arresting 132 members of one of the world’s most powerful criminal networks (see the case illustration in section 3.11).