04/06/2024
Representatives of the European Union and Latin America have met to advance international legal cooperation in criminal matters
Brussels has hosted a meeting between members of the Coordination Committee in the field of Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (CATS) of the European Union and the Justice Policy Cycle that integrate three regional justice networks in Latin America: the Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors (AIAMP); the Conference of Ministers of Justice of Ibero-American Countries (COMJIB) and the Ibero-American Judicial Summit (CJI).
The meeting of senior justice officials from both regions was promoted by the Belgian Presidency of the Council with the collaboration of the European programme PACCTO 2.0, with the aim of advancing international legal cooperation in criminal matters between the EU and Latin American countries.
The EU and Latin America face common security and justice challenges that require strengthening the bi-regional partnership and cooperation at all levels. It therefore addressed in particular priority actions for cooperation in mutual legal assistance, asset recovery, extradition, joint investigation teams, digitisation of judicial systems and electronic evidence. In addition, the possibilities for improving the existing conventional regulatory frameworks were reviewed and the dialogue on procedural safeguards and the rule of law, including on the protection of personal data, was strengthened.
The Justice Policy Cycle between the European Union and Latin America is an initiative promoted since 2022 by the European programme EL PACCTO and its objective is to unite the efforts of Latin American and European regional justice institutions in order to move towards more effective legal cooperation.
Coinciding with this meeting, a meeting was also held in Brussels between senior officials of the Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security of the Council of the European Union (COSI) and representatives of the countries of the Latin American Committee on Internal Security (CLASI), where relevant issues for both regions were addressed, such as the fight against organised drug trafficking and criminal networks.
During the last summit between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held in July 2023 in Brussels, a commitment was made to cooperate on justice and security issues with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Furthermore, the EU-CELAC Summit agreed to strengthen the partnership on justice and security to address common challenges posed by transnational organised crime and proposed that this new framework of enhanced relations should be based on a regular high-level political dialogue to agree on priorities and joint actions.
