Justice Institutions of the EU and Latin America

Throughout the three days of this Meeting, the Minister of Justice of Panama, the Minister of Justice of Spain and representatives of the Ministry of Justice of France, the Directorate General JHA, the General Secretariat of the Council, the Directorate General of Justice of the European Commission, EUROJUST, as well as representatives of the Public Prosecutor's Offices of various countries and the most relevant regional institutions, such as the Ibero-American Judicial Summit (CJI), the Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors (AIAMP) and the Conference of Ministers of Justice of Ibero-American Countries (COMJIB).

The main objective of this II Meeting of Justice Institutions is to strengthen the existing relations between the two regions, as well as to discuss the present and the future of Justice institutions, bearing in mind the need for coordination, cooperation and the establishment of a common strategy, based on trust, to face organised crime on both sides of the Atlantic.

Seven major thematic blocks will be addressed and the results of the work carried out by the two regions will be presented, on the following subjects:

• Towards new policies for the recovery of assets seized in criminal investigations
• Judicial cooperation: Eurojust's relationship with justice institutions and joint investigation teams
• Data protection as a basis for effective and secure international judicial cooperation
• Challenges for the criminal defence of the environment: criminal law and environmental evidence
• Crime and new technologies: the future of electronic evidence and the digital footprint
• Deepening the independence of the judiciary and its specialisation in relation to crime, as a regional necessity
• Electronic creation and transmission of requests for international judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

The EL PAcCTO Programme (Europe Latin America Programme of Assistance against Transnational Organised Crime) is an international cooperation programme financed by the European Union that aims to contribute to the improvement of justice and security in Latin America by supporting the fight against transnational organised crime. The Programme covers the police, judiciary and penitentiary components, in an integral perspective, working in five transversal pillars:

• Cybercrime
• Corruption
• Money laundering
• Human rights
• Gender.

Portugal participates in this Programme, through Camões - Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, I.P, as well as the Police and Judiciary Coordinators, from the Judiciary Police and the Prosecutor General's Office, respectively.

For more information on the EL PAcCTO Programme go to www.elpaccto.eu/pt.