Agence Europe, Toulouse, July 17,2008 - French Justice Minister Rachida Dati inaugurated, on Thursday 17 July in Toulouse, a seminar devoted to: "Eurojust, Joint Investigative Teams and Pooling of Procedures".
The opening conference focused on bolstering Eurojust. The wish to tackle this theme was shared by 14 member states (Sweden, Belgium, Slovenia, Portugal, Czech Republic, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Luxembourg, France and Estonia) that suggested, in early January 2008, that the agency be strengthened. Rachida Dati said "Eurojust results are certainly encouraging but there is still an effort to be made". She went on to call for a political agreement on this issue during the next JHA Council on 24-25 July in Brussels.

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Jacques Barrot, European Commissioner for Justice, Security and Freedom, pointed out that the European Commission clearly supported the initiative to reinforce Eurojust. He called on the states to transpose texts set out in the field of judiciary cooperation on criminal matters into national law as quickly as possible, saying: "We have to hurry: it is essential to completely transpose the instruments that Europe has given itself".(...)

Renate Weber (ALDE, Romania), who is rapporteur at the European Parliament on Eurojust, underlined the presence of a paradox, saying that, although most states are in favour of strengthening Eurojust, there is a lack of confidence on the part of member states when they carry out investigations. "Why strengthen the powers of Eurojust to this point if the states do not have confidence in the agency?", she asked. José Luis Lopes da Mota, Eurojust President, sounded a note of caution, saying: "We can thank the ministers for their political commitment. But then each member state will have to put the text in place".
The Toulouse seminar continued during the afternoon of 17 July and on the morning of 18 July. EUROPE will come back to this.

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