Parliament discusses war crimes in Ukraine. Since the invasion, Russian forces have been accused of numerous breaches of international humanitarian law in Ukrainian territory. Opening statement by Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice

EU - Ukraine (T)

Brussels

debate

plenary session

troubles in Ukraine (T)

REYNDERS, Didier (BE)

The fight against impunity for war crimes in Ukraine: opening statement by Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice

SOUNDBITE (French), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, I'm glad that we're having this debate when it comes to war crimes in the Ukraine and the fight against impunity, people who are carrying out atrocities in the Ukraine need to be held responsible for those crimes. The European Union completely condemns the military aggression by Russia against Ukraine. It's completely unjustified and it flouts international law and in particular the UN Charter. This is something which is damaging the security of and stability of our continent, but also of the entire world.

SOUNDBITE (French), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, We've seen the images from Boucha and the other cities which have been pounded and we've sometimes been even in contact with people who are dealing with the situation on the ground. As you'll be aware, the European Union's adopted unprecedented sanctions against certain individuals and certain Russian companies and Belarussian companies, too.

SOUNDBITE (French), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, We've also set up a freeze and cease task force with member states representatives, as well as people from the Commission, Eurojust and Europol as well. The main goal of the task force is to guarantee coordination between the various stakeholders at European and Member State level for the implementation in an effective and consistent way of sanctions, including rapid identification of the assets of the people who are under investigation and the administrative freezing of said assets.

SOUNDBITE (French), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, Further, the Commission is at the moment preparing a proposal aimed at lengthening the list of euro crimes to include the violation of European law when it comes to sanctions. Further, the Commission is fully committed that the crimes in the Ukraine should be investigated and appropriate criminal penalties be levied so that the authors can be held responsible. I am also in touch with the Ukraine Minister of Justice and head prosecutor to see what the Ukrainian authorities require to carry out the requisite criminal investigations.

SOUNDBITE (French), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, Obviously, the volume and complexity of these need human and technical resources, which are very large, as well as specialist knowledge. Authorities in the Ukraine have opened more than 9000 enquiries against more than 600 suspects. I am pleased that 11 Member States have also opened enquiries of their own on the main international crimes committed in the Ukraine. A common team involving Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland has been set up in March with Eurojust support. This common enquiry team will be broadened before the end of this month to include Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

SOUNDBITE (French), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, I am also reaching out to other member states to see that those who already opened national level enquiries can also join the common enquiry team. Eurojust has also beefed up its cooperation with the International Criminal Court, which is now fully involved in the joint enquiry team. This is a first in the court's history. Europol is also supporting and providing expertise to national member states teams who are specialists in war crimes. It will be very important, therefore, that all the relevant authorities at European level, national level and international level work together harmoniously in order to bring the committees of these crimes to justice.

SOUNDBITE (French), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, It's vital that we intensify the evidence gathering in a coordinated fashion. This is a considerable amount of work which needs to be carried out in terms of centralising and storing evidence outside Ukraine, but also assistance provided to Ukrainian prosecutors to preserve this evidence safely before it's transmitted.

SOUNDBITE (English), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, The adopted Commission a legislative proposal for the amendment of the Eurojust Regulation. This is an important step to ensure that the agency has the necessary legal basis to receive and store evidence relating to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Together with the Genocide Network, which is host at Eurojust, the agency has the expertise to provide support to national investigations into such crimes.

SOUNDBITE (English), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, However, when the regulation was adopted, we did not envisage a situation of this scale. The current legal framework does not allow users to support the member states with the storage and analyses of evidence of such crimes, including evidence collected by civil society organisations. The technical infrastructure of users is also not prepared for the storage of such a large volume of evidence. Therefore, we also need to upgrade the agency's technical infrastructure to allow Eurojust to support the member states, the Ukrainian authorities and the International Criminal Court in their investigations against this background.

SOUNDBITE (English), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, The Commission proposed amendments to the users regulation, which would allow users to receive, preserve and analyse evidence and to process additional data such as videos and audio recording. I count on the support of your Parliament to ensure that this proposal can be adopted as soon as possible. It should contribute to our common objective to hold those responsible for the crimes committed in Ukraine accountable and to deliver justice for the victims.

SOUNDBITE (English), Didier REYNDERS, European Commissioner for Justice, And I would like to thank you already for our fruitful cooperation on this file so far. We need to make progress on different kind of amendment, a different kind of regulation or to new regulations. But we need to continue to work on the ground in good collaboration with the Ukrainian authorities. Definitely it is in the national member states, but also with the International Criminal Court. And so thank you very much for your support for that, but thank you also for your attention this morning. And I really listened very carefully, your observations. Thank you.