Prosecutors from Portuguese-speaking States at Eurojust

On 6 and 7 November, the PACED project (Projeto de Apoio à Consolidação do Estado de Direito nos PALOP e Timor Leste) brought together at Eurojust the PACED Prosecutors Forum with members from all Portuguese-speaking States to facilitate and build up the consolidation of the rule of law in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe (the PALOP States) and Timor Leste (the PACED States). Eurojust will support the judicial authorities of the States involved in their fight against serious transnational criminality.

The objective of the PACED project is to prevent organised crime and help reinforce the fight against corruption, money laundering, drug trafficking and other crimes in the PACED States. The project provides logistical and financial support to strengthen and improve the institutional capacities of the judicial authorities of the States concerned.

Mr António Cluny, National Member for Portugal at Eurojust, and Mr Lukáš Starý, National Member for the Czech Republic and Head of the Board on Relations with Partners at Eurojust, presented to the Forum members the EU perspective on judicial cooperation. They also explained Eurojust's role in making judicial information exchange and mutual legal assistance possible between various States as well as in coordinating their actions to combat cross-border organised crime in a more targeted and efficient manner. In this context, the Forum members analysed and discussed the PACED States' legal instruments and the opportunities offered by Eurojust to use them effectively in collaborating among each other and with the EU Member States' judicial authorities.

Background
In December 2013, the European Commission and the PACED States signed the financing agreement for the implementation of the PACED project in the context of the 10th European Development Fund (EDF), which is financed by the European Union, and co-financed by the Camões Institute. In November 2016, the training programme of the PACED project was launched to train criminal investigation officers by analysing strategic and operational methodologies and by developing mechanisms to identify cases related to serious organised crime.

Photos © Eurojust