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The INCEPT project (Supporting cross-border judicial cooperation in cases related to INterCEPTion of telecommunications, JUST-2024-JCOO 101192923), launched in January 2025 and funded by the European Commission’s Justice Programme, focuses on enhancing cross-border judicial cooperation in the European Union regarding telecommunications interception in criminal investigations. This critical area involves the interception of various forms of electronic communication, including phone calls, messaging apps, emails, and social media platforms frequently used in organized crime, terrorism, and cybercrime.
Despite the importance of telecommunications interception, there is currently no unified EU regulation governing covert investigative measures related to this practice. Instead, each Member State applies its national legal frameworks, which vary significantly across the EU in terms of authorisation procedures, technical standards, and safeguards. To address these challenges, the European Investigation Order (EIO) Directive, adopted in 2014, provides the main legal instrument for judicial cooperation in gathering evidence across borders, including telecommunications interception. However, practical challenges continue to impede seamless cooperation.
The INCEPT project has through its D2.1 report titled “Report with collected and analysed data” identified persistent issues in the implementation of cross-border interception through EIOs, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. This report was coordinated and overseen by the Science and Research Centre Koper (ZRS Koper), which served as the WP2 leader and main project partner responsible for the data collection and research at the European level. ZRS Koper coordinated the secondary research by integrating national-level data from project partners in Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia, conducting a comprehensive literature review, mapping legal frameworks, practices, and challenges surrounding cross-border judicial cooperation related to telecommunications interception, and providing the essential foundational research that informs the project’s methodology and outputs.
The D2.1 report serves as the base research for the INCEPT project, offering a detailed analysis of the current state of telecommunication interception, judicial cooperation, and electronic evidence exchange across Central and Eastern Europe, and highlighting challenges and best practices for enhancing cross-border cooperation in the EU. We hope that the D2.1 report will contribute meaningfully to identifying existing gaps and potential best practices in response to the many challenges and complexities associated with the implementation of the EIO and help project partners in their efforts to strengthen practitioners’ knowledge, skills, and motivation for effective cross-border evidence exchange in criminal proceedings.
