At the Council of Europe's Octopus Conference 2026 in Strasbourg, the Joint Defense Team argued that faster cross-border access to digital evidence under the Second Additional Protocol and the EU e-evidence Regulation must remain subject to the safeguards of Article 15 of the Budapest Convention and to effective defence rights.

In Case C-625/25 (Prudniez), the CJEU must decide whether Article 14 of Directive 2014/41/EU and Article 47 of the Charter require France to give people prosecuted in other Member States a remedy against SkyECC evidence it transmitted by European Investigation Order; the Advocate General's Opinion is due on 19 November 2026.

The ECtHR has communicated new SkyECC cases from Norway, raising fundamental questions on fair trial rights under Article 6 ECHR. Together with Silgir v Germany (EncroChat) and ongoing ANOM proceedings, the Court is shaping a European framework for the use of encrypted communication evidence in cross-border criminal cases.