Mr Michael Schmid, National Member for Austria at Eurojust, has on 12 November been elected as the new President of the Agency. He has effectively taken up office on 15 November for a four-year term, replacing the current President, Mr Ladislav Hamran, who is completing his second and final term. Mr Schmid (40) has represented the Austrian judicial authorities at Eurojust as National Member since 2022. Previously, he was Deputy National Member at the Agency and Justice Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Austria at the European Union in Brussels.
Commenting on his election as President by his fellow National Members, Mr Schmid stated: I am obviously delighted by the election and would like to thank my colleagues for giving me their confidence. As we look ahead, my goal is to further strengthen Eurojust’s support for the judicial authorities across Europe. In recent years, criminal proceedings have grown increasingly complex, driven by the rise of digitalisation, increasing links to non-European countries, and a more interconnected web of criminal networks. It is only together that we will be able to effectively tackle these challenges and care for a more secure Europe.
The President of Eurojust represents the Agency and oversees the meetings of the National Members who meet regularly in the College, which elected Mr Schmid today. The President also directs and monitors Eurojust’s activities and management, in close cooperation with Administrative Director Mr Vincent Jamin. Mr Schmid will also cooperate closely with the two Vice-Presidents of Eurojust, Mr Boštjan Škrlec and Ms Margarita Šniutytė-Daugėlienė.
Eurojust has been a thread throughout the career of Mr Schmid. In 2014, he came to the Agency as a trainee via the European Judicial Trainee Network (EJTN) and later worked as a Seconded National Expert and assistant to the National Member. In 2017, Mr Schmid became Deputy National Member, in which capacity he held the role of Vice-Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Team.
In April 2021, the new Eurojust President took up the role of Justice Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union in Brussels. In this role, he participated in numerous Council negotiations on criminal and procedural law, as well as the Digital Services Act. In April 2022, he returned to Eurojust as National Member for Austria. Recently, he chaired the Advisory Group on Organisational Development, a panel which designed the priorities and internal procedures of the Agency.
Mr Schmid graduated in law from the University of Vienna in 2007, joining the Austrian judiciary the same year. After completing the national training programme in 2011, he became a prosecutor in Vienna, dealing with general criminal cases and later economic crimes. During his first period at Eurojust, Mr Schmid undertook a Master’s programme in criminal justice at Leiden University in the Netherlands, graduating cum laude in 2021.
The new Eurojust President in the past served as a guest lecturer at numerous universities in Austria and abroad and was a teacher for practitioners at the Austrian Ministry of Justice, EJTN, the European Legal Academy (ERA) in Trier (Germany) and the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) in Budapest. Mr Schmid speaks German, English, Dutch and French.
