Meetings with criminal justice institutions, regulatory authorities and Internet service providers in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 12-13 October 2017, has opened the series of follow-up visits to Eastern Partnership states, which aim to update two studies developed previously by the Council of Europe: Study on Article 15 safeguards in EAP countries (October 2013) and Mapping Report on public-private cooperation in the Eastern Partnership (September 2016).

The question of safeguards and guarantees in the application of procedural powers in criminal investigations, as required by Article 15 of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, is one of the key issues contributing to trust - or lack thereof – between the law enforcement and the Internet service providers. On the other hand, public-private cooperation between the law enforcement and the Internet industry in the Eastern Partnership is not exercised in balanced way, which takes into account both the obligation of the state to secure expedient access to data and evidence and thus conduct effective criminal investigations, and, at the same time, to respect human rights and the rule of law in this process.

The visits to all EAP countries in October and November 2017, provided under the Cybercrime@EAP III project, will lead to production of the above-noted two reports with up-to-date information by the end of 2017, with additional data on ongoing projects and initiatives related to public-private cooperation as well as study of the feasibility of transforming the Cybercrime Octopus Community into a more permanent platform to support the process of public-private cooperation.

• Agenda
• Cybercrime@EAP III website