Project Overview

Malcolm Morrison, ICT Project Officer With financial support from Criminal Justice Programme 2008 European Commission – Directorate-General Justice, Freedom and Security

Background

The Idea behind EPOC (European Pool against Organised Crime) is to develop tools to support the fight against serious and organised crime.

• EPOC started in 2002 with the Italian Ministry of Justice. • Eurojust adopted EPOC as its CMS System in 2004 becoming the coordination tool for managing cases in Eurojust.

• Following EPOC III+ in 2009 it is decided the Eurojust CMS will diverge from the EPOC Research Project and follow a separate development track.

In 2009 a strategic need to secure the exchange of information was identified and EPOC IV starts • 10 Partners from 8 member states commit to the project • There is a clear vision where the results of EPOC IV would represent a key tool to facilitate interoperability of national systems and could become the international cooperation component of national systems 2

Project Objectives Further Evolution of the EPOC software to allow the exchange of information with national case management systems and the promotion of usage in the member states.

• • • • •

Drafting of a data format

to exchange data between different case management systems

Evolution

of the EPOC

software to connect diverse case management systems

used at the national level

Establish communication

between Eurojust and

three

case management systems used at the

national level Coordinate the future evolution

of EPOC and promote the usage

Analyse

the connection between organised crime and corruption based on the exchange of

statistics

between the Italian Desk and the Italian Anticorruption and Transparency Service The EPOC IV Project is supported by a grant from the European Commission for the period 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2012.

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2009

High level Planning

2010

Data Format

Research And Drafting 2011

2012

Promotion and Implementation

Software Development

Requirement Specification & Build Implementation and Test

Connect N ational CMS

Analysis & Specification Connect and Experiment (3 country systems)

Coordination

Use CIRCA & Gather Business Requirements Organisational Solutions Technical Solutions

Analysis of statistics

Research & Gather Requirements Implementation and Test 4

Project Deliverables 1 of 2

Data Standard • A Data standard that will support inter-operability between diverse systems in differing circumstances – This will contain sufficient data descriptions to cover the broad area of Criminal Justice Systems Present in partner countries – This will describe the types and forms of data that could make up communications between systems – This will describe how communication will be presented to systems • A way of building communication schema between systems – Tools and methodology of describing communication between systems • A specific method to allow communication to Eurojust – Defined format of the information necessary required to inform Eurojust of a case that could be entered into the Eurojust CMS. – Description of how communication will be presented to Eurojust – Description of how the communication process shall work between 2 parties.

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Project Deliverables 2 of 2

Software • Flexible software Prototypes that will add value and flexibility to Members states by – Providing integration as one system to coordinate various data sources and supporting communication internationally to other systems using the data standard – Or by providing a series of applications that integrate to existing national systems that supporting communication internationally to other systems using the data standard – Prove the concept of the data standard and the added value delivered • Coordination and promotion that will build a user community and manage change to standards and software products • The results of experimentation with the Italian Anti Corruption Authority Documentation • Supporting each deliverable detailing approach, activity, conclusions and proposals 6

How to become involve in EPOC IV

• Register with the CIRCA tool to get access to key Project Documents • Encourage National Authorities to be enthusiastically involved • Ask to join a project meeting if you have not attended before • Host a project meeting to promote the project in your member state • Keep up to date with news by checking the EPOC IV Project page at the following link http://www.eurojust.europa.eu/epoc-iv.htm

for – A project overview including a list of project partners – Links to useful websites associated to the project (CIRCA Included) – Contact Details for the EPOC IV Project Office [email protected]

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