Last modified: 2025-05-17 by olivier touzeau
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Flag of Eurojust - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 5 February 2025
Eurojust was established as a result of a decision that the European
Council of Tampere (15-16 October 1999) made to set up a permanent
judicial co-operation unit in order to improve the fight against
serious crime [source: European Parliament]. The Treaty of Nice amended the Treaty on the European Union to include a reference to
Eurojust. On December 14, 2000, a precursor organization called
Pro-Eurojust was created by the Council of the European Union to
permit prosecutors to test the Eurojust processes. It began operating
in Brussels on March 1, 2003 [source: Eurojust website] giving way to the establishment of Eurojust, which was then
established in February 2002 as EU Judicial Cooperation Unit by
Council Decision 2002/187/JHA. The new organization settled in The Hague on April 29, 2003.
The Eurojust Regulation (Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the
European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, replacing and
repealing Council Decision 2002/187/JHA) was adopted on November 6,
2018 and became applicable on December 12, 2019.The Regulation established Eurojust as the European Union Agency for
Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) and became directly applicable
on 12 December in the Member States, without a need for national
transposing acts." [source: Eurojust website here and here].
Esteban Rivera, 4 July 2023
Flag of Eurojust - Image located by Esteban Rivera, 4 July 2023
On April 15, 2019 Eurojust officially introduced a new visual identity [source].
The consultants who designed Eurojust's new visual identity are
Rogério Lira [official website] and
Desmond Spruijt [official website].
For all the elements of the new identity, please see the Eurojust
Media kit.
Source of the photo: ukranews (2023).
Former flag of Eurojust
Former flag of Eurojust - Image by Zoltán Horváth, 13 April 2011
The flag of Eurojust (photo) [before 2019] is white with the agency's logo in the middle.
On the logo, the yellow EU stars are overlapped by red, yellow and blue rectangles, a pair of scales, a sword and inscription are placed on
various colors.
Zoltán Horváth, 13 April 2011
Flag of ICPA - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 15 May 2025 ; right, image located by Esteban Rivera, 4 July 2023
On November 2022, nine months after the full scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, "the European Commission and the European External Action
Service presented a paper analysing the different options to ensure
full accountability for the crimes committed in the context of the
Russian war against Ukraine, including the crime of aggression (in
particular, defined as "The international definition considers the
crime of aggression as a leadership crime that can only be committed
by those with the power to shape a state's policy of aggression,
rather than those who carry it out.", source:
Eurojust website).
The setting up of the International Centre for the Prosecution of
the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine was announced at the 24th
EU-Ukraine Summit on February 2, 2023.
On March 4, 2023 (other sources mention March 3 [source: euneighbourseast.eu and neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu]) the European Union (EU) agreed to establish an International
Centre for the Prosecution of Crimes Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA)
to fill in any gaps in prosecution from the International Criminal
Court (ICC) as Russia had rejected the ICC jurisdiction to prosecute a
case of aggression as neither Ukraine nor Russia ratified the 2010 ICC
Kampala Amendments on "aggression" being added to the existing three
grave international crimes, namely war crimes, crimes against humanity
and genocide (source: treaties.un.org).
Since the ICC which is investigating crimes during the Russian
invasion of Ukraine but does not have jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed during
the conflict, this initiative was enacted in order to prosecute such
acts.
This is in consonance with the complementary International Criminal
Court investigation in Ukraine (from the period since November 21,
2013) after the submission of the situation in the country by 43 State
Parties of the Rome Statute which enabled
the ICC to assign Pre-Trial Chamber II operational duties (source: icc-cpi.int), including the issuing of
arrest warrants against two Russian citizens (sources: icc-cpi.int, video). This is part of a
much broader International Criminal Tribunal for the Russian
Federation as proposed by multiple parties (sources: article, article in Wikipedia).
It will be coordinated by Eurojust and will have prosecutors from the EU, USA, Ukraine and the ICC. Its office is located in The Hague and opened on July 3, 2023. It is tasked with collecting evidence, identifying witnesses and possible suspects and executing arrest warrants (including those issued by the ICC). It is a hub to foster judicial cooperation (sources: article, document, document in Eurojust website; article on Euronews).
The flag is white with logo (cropped image from Euronews live broadcast on July 3, 2023).
Esteban Rivera, 4 July 2023