The Working Party on Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (COPEN) is scheduled to meet on 20 July 2026 in Brussels to adopt mutual evaluation reports on Bulgaria, Austria, and Germany, and to examine a draft Eurojust cooperation agreement with Colombia, according to a notice of meeting and provisional agenda published by the Council on 17 July 2026.
The meeting, which will take place at 10:30 in the LEX Building in a 2+2 format, will begin with the adoption of the agenda. Under mutual evaluations, the working party is set to present and adopt country reports from the 11th round covering Bulgaria (document 10253/26), Austria (10628/26), and Germany (10629/26). Preparations for the 12th round will also be discussed, based on Presidency information (WK 10450/26) and a Belgian non-paper (WK 10466/26) on topic selection.
In the area of international agreements, the European Commission will present a draft Eurojust cooperation agreement with Colombia. The working party will continue its examination of a Council Decision concerning EU positions on third-party accession requests to the Budapest Convention on cybercrime (documents 9081/26 + ADD 1, 10556/26). Additionally, the Commission will present proposals for Council Decisions on signing the additional protocol to the Warsaw Convention (CETS 198), referenced in documents 11726/26 + ADD 1 and 11730/26 + ADD 1.
A Commission non-paper (WK 10374/26) on difficulties in preparing signature and conclusion proposals for the convention on the protection of lawyers will be discussed. The Presidency will also present an updated overview (WK 10376/26) of ongoing and proposed criminal law negotiations.
The meeting advances EU judicial cooperation by adopting country reports, examining agreements with Colombia and Council of Europe conventions, and planning future mutual evaluation rounds. No prior coverage of this meeting exists in the available record.