Latin America and the European Union strengthen judicial cooperation with the Lisbon Declaration

Joint investigation teams, data protection, defence of the environment by means of penal legislation, the future of electronic evidence… are some of the challenges addressed in the meeting organised by the FIIAPP in Lisbon to strengthen judicial cooperation between Latin America and the European Union.     

For three days, this meeting, held within the framework of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, allowed dialogue between senior representatives of Latin American and European justice institutions. It concluded with the signing of the Lisbon Declaration, an unequivocal commitment to continue judicial cooperation and advance the common standards that govern Latin America and Europe in matters of justice.  

The Lisbon Declaration was promoted by the EL PAcCTO project, financed by the European Union and co-led by FIIAPP and Expertise France. During the event, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders highlighted the European commitment to judicial cooperation: “The fight against crime and its prevention is something that must be better worked on at the regional and transnational level.”   

The coordinator of the area of cooperation between justice systems of EL PAcCTO, Antonio Roma, affirmed that it is “an opportunity to lay the foundations that allow the proper definition of the standards of the operation of justice in the face of present and future challenges.”  

For the director of FIIAPP, Anna Terrón, “judicial cooperation is not only a prerequisite for States’ overall and legal security; it is also a lever for their social and economic development, and that is why cooperation actors such as the FIIAPP prioritise policy dialogue at the highest level to build the judicial norms and systems that we need to frame the development of the 21st century.”  

Twenty high-ranking officials participated in this meeting, including representatives of regional justice institutions in Latin America (COMJIB, AIAMP and the Iberoamerican Judicial Summit) in addition to the Ministers of Justice of Portugal and Paraguay and the chairman of Eurojust. Representatives of the Spanish Ministry of Justice, the Attorney General’s Office and the General Council of the Judiciary  also attended.