European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Remarks by Executive Vice-President Virkkunen and Commissioners Brunner and McGrath on strengthening Europol and Eurojust Brussels, 24 June 2026 Executive Vice-President Virkkunen Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Today, we adopted two proposals for Regulations strengthening Europol and Eurojust to step up the fight against cross-border crime and terrorism. Th...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Remarks by Executive Vice-President Virkkunen and Commissioners Brunner and McGrath on strengthening Europol and Eurojust Brussels, 24 June 2026 Executive Vice-President Virkkunen Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Today, we adopted two proposals for Regulations strengthening Europol and Eurojust to step up the fight against cross-border crime and terrorism. The European security environment is becoming more complex and criminal activities more sophisticated, more cross-border and increasingly more digital. A year ago, when the European Internal Security Strategy, ProtectEU was adopted we committed to address these challenges. Today's geopolitical landscape is changing rapidly. We face escalating hybrid threats, expanding organized crime, and growing digital dangers from criminals and terrorists. To guarantee our internal security, we must build stronger European capabilities. We are strengthening Europol and Eurojust so they can offer the Member States the support they need - from prevention to prosecution. Here is how we are delivering on that promise: For Europol, we are proposing to strengthen Europol's mandate by enhancing information exchange, embedding cutting-edge technology at the heart of its operations, deepening support to Member States, and reinforcing cooperation with EU agencies and international partners. For years, criminals have been benefitting ad hoc structures and fragmented information sharing by national authorities. Stronger operational support and Europol support offices in member states will change this picture. We will also take full use of data and technological possibilities and establish Europol cloud infrastructure, which will secure access to data-processing capabilities as well as other IT tools, allowing police to work in real-time on the same case remotely. We are also taking to the next level the synergies between all our justice and home affairs agencies. We are stepping up coordination and complementarity amongst Europol and Eurojust. But also with the European Public Prosecutor, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority and the recently established Customs Authority. This will guarantee seamless cooperation to our national authorities in the fight against cross-border crime. To give you an example of the scale - cybercrime costs our economy trillions of euros every year. In fact, if cybercrime were a country, it would have the third-largest economy in the world according to recent studies. To fight this, our police and cybersecurity teams must work together perfectly. That is why I am so pleased that Europol's new mandate strengthens its partnership with ENISA, the EU Cybersecurity Agency. For Eurojust, we will make judicial cooperation faster, more operational and more effective, helping competent authorities of Member States investigate and prosecute complex cross-border cases. Eurojust will be able to act on its own initiative to identify links between cases, anticipate further and decide on the need for coordination. Eurojust's mandate will also be expanded to strengthen its involvement in emerging areas of crime, such as cybercrime, the violations of EU restrictive measures, or gender-based violence. This will enable Eurojust to better support national authorities in complex cross-border cases. My good colleagues Magnus and Michael will soon share more details of the two proposals. These proposals acknowledge that while competences remain national, solutions can only be European, built on trust among all players, both national and European. Trust is key, and these proposals will foster it. Thanks, I will now pass the floor to Magnus. *** Commissioner Brunner Thank you, Henna and Michael, for the excellent cooperation. The most basic of rights is the right to feel safe. And Europe already does a very good job today, as we live in the safest continent in the world. But today's criminal networks are not the ones our systems were originally built to stop. They are cross-border, multi-crime, hybrid, and increasingly driven by technology. With ProtectEU, our Internal Security Strategy, we put forward our vision to preserve that right to feel safe. Europol is very much at the heart of this vision, and has been very successful. In the last six years, Europol has supported more than 20,000 operations, carried out almost 32,000 arrests, and seized almost €9 billion in assets. Today we present the most comprehensive update in Europol's 25-year history. Four key changes, all aimed at closing the gaps that criminal networks exploit today. Right now, Europol does not automatically receive the information that Member States should share. And even where data is shared, it is based on bilateral messages and ad hoc requests. For example, a burglary gang might hit houses all across Europe, without law enforcement in different Member States connecting the cases. That's a gap that we are closing. With the new rules, we will automate the uploading of data to Europol, and we will enable real-time collaboration on a shared data space, so investigators can use the information to work together. Europol's work is only as strong as the support it brings to the Member States. This is why we're putting Europol expertise directly into national investigations. Europol Support offices in Member States will help Member States' police forces to make better use of Europol's tools and services. Criminal networks adopt new technology fast – much faster than the police. That is why we propose to make Europol a technology and innovation hub, providing an EU-wide picture of the needs of law enforcement to support joint research and development, especially in areas like Decryption, AI, etc. So that we do not have to build the same capability 27 times. Financial crime against the EU budget, VAT fraud, misused EU funds, is exactly the kind of crime that exploits the gaps between agencies. With the new mandates for Europol and Eurojust, we're closing that seam. We are strengthening cooperation with the new EU agencies like AMLA, the EU Customs Authority EUCA, and the other Home Affairs agencies. Because when two EU bodies are chasing the same money, or pursuing the same leads, the only winner is the time it buys the criminals. They need to connect the dots. Finally, Europol must be able to work more closely with partners outside the EU and access information across borders. Because crime does not stop at EU borders. In the last two years, the EU has concluded 46 agreements. Most recently with Brazil and Peru. These agreements are already delivering results. For example, in Colombia in 2025, with Europol's support, a large cocaine trafficking network was dismantled. This led to 22 arrests, 1 tonne of cocaine seized, and 53 bank accounts frozen, before the drugs ever entered the EU. Today, the European law enforcement community is stepping into the future as one team, with Europol as its cooperation platform. Thank you. *** Commissioner McGrath Good afternoon, everyone, Under the criminal justice branch, we are proposing three targeted measures so that investigations are more connected and coherent and justice is delivered faster and smarter. We will strengthen Eurojust's mandate, upgrade the European Investigation Order, and modernise the EUDPR (Data Protection Regulation for Union institutions and bodies). Eurojust acts as the EU's Agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters. It coordinates the investigations of national authorities into serious cross-border crime. Organised crime cuts through our continent – knowing no borders and threatening our Union's internal security. But Eurojust can react! For example, if there is an organised crime group smuggling drugs across Member States, Eurojust can coordinate the investigations of Member States authorities – supporting Europol and the European Public Prosecutor's Office when needed. And Eurojust not only tackles organised crime, but also international crimes – ensuring criminals can't hide behind national borders. This puts the Agency at the centre of accountability efforts following Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. Eurojust's impact is already clear. Since 2020, the Agency's caseload has risen by more than 60%. It has investigated six times as many suspects. This rising challenge has been met with rising results! With 10 times more drugs seized, and more than twice as many suspects arrested between 2020 and 2025. So, what today's proposals mean in practice: Internally, we will modernise how the Agency is run by creating a new management board dedicated to running the Agency. This will free up the National Members to focus entirely on investigating cross-border crime. And by requiring those National Members to be prosecutors or judges, they will have the judicial power they need to open investigations – making the pursuit of justice faster and smarter. We also propose that Eurojust not only reacts to Member States' investigations but also be proactive in opening its own investigations. The revision also ensures that Eurojust can detect links between criminal cases much earlier by using an automated system that compares information held by different EU agencies. The system can then flag connections between ongoing proceedings, helping authorities coordinate investigations more effectively. The Agency will also better support Member States to tackle new offences – this is a key milestone. These include gender-based violence and cybercrimes, which thrive online and increasingly span multiple jurisdictions. Eurojust can also support judicial coordination in sanctions cases, helping authorities untangle complex cross-border financial flows and trace hidden assets. Externally, we have proposed ways to streamline information exchange and cooperation with both Europol on law enforcement and the EPPO on crimes against the EU budget. And we have proposed ways for Eurojust to cooperate more closely with non-EU countries, which is essential; we need more cross-border investigations into global crime networks. To close gaps by allowing national authorities to obtain evidence in cross-border criminal investigations, we propose to update the European Investigation Order (EIO). To make proceedings more efficient, the new European Remote Participation Order (ERPO) will enable a suspect, accused person, or victim to participate remotely in criminal court hearings – which will ultimately add speed to this process in the criminal justice chain. And to simplify and harmonise how operational personal data is processed by the EU's Justice and Home Affairs agencies and bodies, we will modernise the Data Protection Regulation for Union institutions and bodies (EUDPR) with targeted amendments. Our proposal today is about supporting Europol to fight impunity and Eurojust to deliver justice. From intelligence gathering to courtroom outcomes, Eurojust and Europol provide a seamless response to cross-border crimes – investigations will become more connected; justice will be delivered faster and smarter. Thank you. SPEECH/26/1448 Press contacts: Markus LAMMERT (+32 2 29 67533) Elettra DI MASSA (+32 2 29 82161) Antoine LOMBA (+32 2 29 93233) General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email Related media Read-out of the College meeting / press conference by European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna VIRKKUNEN and Commissioners Magnus BRUNNER and Michael McGRATH on strengthening Europol and Eurojust to step up the fight against cross-border crime and terrorism Read-out of the College meeting / press conference by European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna VIRKKUNEN and Commissioners Magnus BRUNNER and Michael McGRATH on strengthening Europol and Eurojust to step up the fight against cross-border crime and terrorism Read-out of the College meeting / press conference by European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna VIRKKUNEN and Commissioners Magnus BRUNNER and Michael McGRATH on strengthening Europol and Eurojust to step up the fight against cross-border crime and terrorism
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