The Spanish Minister of Justice, Ms Dolores Delgado Garcia, expressed her strong support for Eurojust today during her visit to its premises in The Hague. As former coordinating prosecutor for counter-terrorism in Spain, Ms Delgado Garcia highlighted the important role Eurojust plays in this domain and the fact that her country is one of the seven that supports the European judicial counter-terrorism register, which will be set up at Eurojust. Furthermore, she emphasized Eurojust's essential position as the central hub for combatting cross-border crime, at the same time as EU Member States keep their own judicial systems.

Eurojust's President, Mr Ladislav Hamran, said: 'We welcome the support of Minister Delgado Garcia and know we can always count on Spain as a key partner in tackling cross-border crime. Combatting terrorism together with Spain, but also taking on other forms of crime, such as trafficking in human beings, people smuggling and arms and drugs trafficking, is of paramount importance for our good and continuous cooperation with the Spanish judiciary and authorities.'

Minister Delgado Garcia stated: 'Spain has supported, and continues to strongly support, the participation of Eurojust in projects to improve international cooperation in other parts of the world. Some of them are singularly strategic for Spain, such as the  EuroMed Justice cross-regional project with our South Partners Countries in the framework of which, last January, Eurojust hosted the second meeting of the EuroMed General Prosecutors Forum.'

During her visit, Minister Delgado Garcia met with the College of National Members at Eurojust, the Spanish National Member, Mr Francisco Jiménez-Villarejo, and the entire Spanish National Desk, and spoke to the Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Team at Eurojust, French National Member Mr Frédéric Baab.

The Minister stressed, in general, that Eurojust plays a vital role in ensuring safety in the European Union while maintaining open borders, and particularly pointed out Eurojust's role in coordinating cooperation with Northern African countries via EuroMed. With an increasing number of cases being handled by Eurojust, the Minister touched upon the importance of together combatting arms and drugs trafficking, people smuggling and trafficking in human beings and cybercrime.

Out of a total of more than 6 600 cases handled by Eurojust last year, 517 were dealt with by the Spanish National Desk. So far in 2019, the Spanish Desk has opened 122 cases.

 Photos © Eurojust