During the meeting, the CrimEx members of Member States and SPCs agreed on organisational rules and who will be appointed or function as contact points, as well as the institutions involved. The network will facilitate cross-border and cross-regional judicial cooperation and will function in full respect of EU data protection rules. The CrimEx experts will remain in charge of the strategic dialogue on judicial cooperation.

The establishment of EMJNet, the network of contact points, takes the cooperation within the framework of EMJ to the next level, enhancing the exchange of information between authorities involved and the EU and SPCs as a whole. Authorities in all SPCs – Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine^* and Tunisia – will now start the process of formally appointing contact points.

The decision to establish the network of contact points follows the agreement on the setting up of a series of six special tools or cooperation mechanisms during the 13th CrimEx meeting last month. Work on these tools is now progressing under the guidance of Short-Term Experts who have been engaged by CrimEx.

CrimEx is the expert group in judicial criminal matters of the EMJ programme. EMJ brings together the most relevant stakeholders to develop a sustainable cross-regional mechanism of judicial cooperation in criminal matters between EU Member States and the seven SPCs. The next major step in the EMJ programme is the 3rd Forum of Prosecutors General, which will take place in The Hague at the end of this year. The CrimEx agreement on contact points will be one of the themes which will be further discussed during the Forum.

* This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the Member States on this issue.