In a series of meetings at The Hague, Netherlands on 24-25 May 2023, the DOJ and NBI Officials led by SOJ Jesus Crispin Remulla paid courtesy visits and undertook dialogues with key law enforcement organizations in the European Union, more specifically, The Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust), the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

The rounds of discussions with these key EU Organizations covered potential areas of technical assistance, collaboration, and cooperation to establish or further strengthen mechanisms to combat transnational crimes, especially big time cases of drug trafficking, terrorism, terrorism financing, and cybercrime. In his meeting with the Europol, SOJ Remulla underscored that “[in] our view, the Philippines and Europol share similar objectives which is to ensure effective response to serious threats of international organized crime. By collaborating and occasionally pooling resources, we hope to tackle common challenges more effectively.”

At the very least, this series of meetings was aimed at establishing lines of communication to serve as conduit of information sharing and coordination in order to expedite the exchange of actionable intelligence and timely alerts on transnational criminal activities. As conveyed by SOJ Remulla to Eurojust President Ladislav Hamran, “I hope then that this significant meeting with you will pave the way for more exchanges of information and best practices on institution and policy level, as well as to closer and smoother coordination between our institutions in terms of investigation and prosecution of specific transnational crimes.”

Moving forward, Eurojust President Ladislav Hamran requested SOJ Remulla to appoint designated contact point for international cooperation.