EPOC: Empowering Judicial Cooperation through Eurojust

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EPOC Empowering Judicial Cooperation through
Eurojust

• Matthias Ruckdäschel, ICT Project Officer,
  Eurojust
• (ICT4Justice, Thessaloniki, 24 October 2008)

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This Presentation

• Aim
• To explain how the EPOC software empowers
  international judicial cooperation against
  serious crimes
• Structure
• Judicial cooperation and Eurojust
• ICT tool EPOC, the Case Management System used
  at Eurojust
• EPOC IV the way forward

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Eurojust

• What is Eurojust?
• Council Decision 2002/187/JHA, setting up
  Eurojust with a view to reinforcing the fight
  against serious crime, modified by Decision
  2003/659/JHA a EU body
• Who is Eurojust?
• Composition 27 National Members
  (prosecutors/judges, one nominated by each Member
  State), Deputies/Assistants and Administration
  staff supporting casework (e.g. analysts)
• Objectives
• Stimulate and improve the co-ordination of
  cross-border investigations and prosecutions
• Improve co-operation between the competent
  authorities in Member States
• Support otherwise the competent authorities of
  the Member States to render their investigations
  and prosecutions more effective

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The CMS

• Why a Case Management System (CMS)?
• A legal requirement Eurojust Decision and data
  protection rules
• A need ICT tool for the operational work
• Not only to register cases, but also to work
  effectively
• EPOC software used as CMS
• EPOC has been developed since 2002 through three
  projects co-funded by the European Commission
• EPOC partners todayBulgaria (EPOC IV), France,
  Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Eurojust and CM
  Sistemi SpA (Rome)
• EPOC design based on Eurojust Decision

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CMS Functionality

• Support to management and coordination of
  investigations and prosecutions which Eurojust is
  assisting
• Data Management
• Facilitation of access to information /
  interaction between NMs (Temporary Work Files and
  Index)
• Enable cross-references between entities
  (persons, places, etc) and automatic detection of
  potential links between cases
• Enforcement of Eurojust Data Protection Rules
• Exchange of information (structured data) between
  Eurojust and National Authorities (prototype in
  testing)

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The Structure of a TWF

• Every TWF holds some general information(statisti
  cal purposes)
• A TWF contains a number of Documents
• Files (i.e. the electronic versions of a real
  paper document, e.g. rogatory letters) may be
  attached to a document
• Structured data and links operational entities
  (e.g. persons, places,etc.) and relationships
  between them
• Each TWF has private and shared sections
• Private section Only the owner delegation can
  access the data
• Shared section The owner of the data and
  involved parties can access the data
• Index of data Procedural information accessible
  by every user

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Example of a Document
Document Specific Request
From Prosecutor in Lyon To National Member
for France, Eurojust Subject Information on
Slovenian suspect requested
Structured Data
Attachments
Person 1
File 1 MLA Request
File 2 Additionalinformation
Place 1
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Entities of Interest (Excerpt)
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Example of two interconnected Offices
General Prosecution office
Romanian Desk
Slovenian Desk
Department for Org. Crime Terrorism
ComputerNetwork
E-POC
E-POC
...
...
Anti-corruption Department
Polish Desk
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Security Aspects

• Functional security
• Login/password mechanism
• Users have user profiles, to identify available
  functions
• Encrypted channel between users and application
• Data security
• Each information has a data owner (working group)
• Data visibility is related to the delegation each
  user belongs to
• Security classification
• Personal data time limits
• Log of all the data access

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The Future

• Technical evolution (software currently based on
  technology from 2002/2003) ongoing
• Limited access to EPOC from networks with a lower
  security level
• Extension of the EPOC usage EPOC IV
• Revised Eurojust Decision

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Objectives of EPOC IV

• Drafting of a (general) data format to exchange
  data related to criminal cases between judicial
  authorities in the EU
• Implementation of that data format in EPOC and in
  national case management systems to facilitate
  interoperability
• Connection of three national systems with each
  other and Eurojust through EPOC
• Identify and address needs for future
  coordination ensure consistent future
  development and usage
• Analyse the connection between organised crime
  and corruption based on the exchange of
  statistics between the Italian Desk and the IT
  High Commissioner against Corruption

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EPOC IV State of Play

• Grant awarded (Criminal Justice Programme 2008),
  agreement to be signed
• Project could start in December 2008
• Project is ambitious but the deliverables are
  expected to have a high impact on the efficiency
  of judicial cooperation in the EU
• Some space (travel costs) foreseen for further
  partners and experts in data exchange in the
  judicial domain

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To sum up

• EPOC software is based on consistent and robust
  legal framework on security and data protection
• Eurojust CMS system developed at European level
  to deal with data on criminal investigations and
  prosecutions (judicial cooperation)
• Ground for further developments in Europe (EPOC
  IV,e-Justice umbrella)
• Further partners to EPOC IV are welcome to join

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Questions?