Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, is a unique hub based in The Hague, the Netherlands, where national judicial authorities work closely together to fight serious organised cross-border crime. The Eurojust Regulation, applicable from 12 December 2019, reinforces Eurojust's successful core concept of supporting the national authorities in their investigations and prosecutions. The National Members, serving their national authorities in criminal judicial cooperation matters, provide strategic guidance and participate actively in the operational and policy activities linked to the mandate of Eurojust. In 2023, the 76 National Members, Deputies and Assistants were supported by 278 staff.

This report focuses on the implementation of the Annual Work Programme (AWP) 2023 and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the 2023 budget execution and staffing policies, and the implementation of internal controls. The AWP 2023 is the second AWP under Eurojust’s Multi-Annual Strategy (MAS) 2022-2024. Eurojust achieved 76% of the 2023 KPIs, and made a steady progress towards achieving its multi-annual KPIs. In 2023, casework increased by 14%, and Eurojust continued building up its ability to act on its own initiative. In total, 577 Coordination Meetings and 21 Coordination Centres were organised. Eurojust supported 288 Joint Investigation Teams, facilitated the execution of 1259 European Arrest Warrants and enabled the use of 6299 European Investigation Orders.

While Eurojust’s work in 2023 continued to have a strong focus on supporting Member States’ and partners’ judicial response to the war in Ukraine, the Agency delivered on its full mandate to fight all cross-border serious crimes, handling more than 13 000 cases. Eurojust contributed to the arrest of more than 4 200 suspects, and the seizure and/or freezing of criminal assets worth over EUR 1 billion. The Agency also contributed to the seizure of drugs worth almost EUR 26 billion, representing more than double the amount it helped seize in 2022. These impressive operational outcomes6 are the result of cross-border cooperation between judicial authorities enabled by Eurojust, in close cooperation with all actors in the criminal justice chain... During 2023, Eurojust dealt with more than 13 000 cases across 13 categories of serious crossborder crime, ranging from cybercrime and money laundering to trafficking in human beings and environmental crime. The top three crime types handled by the Agency in 2023 continued to be swindling and fraud, drug trafficking and money laundering. Two thirds of all cases that Eurojust worked on in 2023 involved one of these crime types. Over 4 000 cases in total focused on swindling and fraud crimes, while more than 2 400 cases dealt with drug trafficking and more than 2 200 cases with money laundering.