Italy takes lead role in EU EMPACT workshop on witness-protection mobility

Italy’s Central Witness Protection Service hosted an international EMPACT–Operational Action (OA) workshop in Rome on 7 October, gathering delegates from 22 Schengen and non-EU states to harmonise cross-border procedures for relocating protected witnesses and collaborators of justice. Opening the event, Deputy Police Chief Raffaele Grassi announced that Italy will act as EMPACT ‘Action Leader’ for the 2026-2028 cycle in the strategic area of witness protection. The meeting focused on how digitalisation and interoperable databases can speed the secure movement of protected persons across borders while safeguarding their new identities and right to work. Participants compared national practices for issuing emergency travel documents, residence permits and work authorisations—areas where inconsistent rules often delay relocations and limit labour-market access. Italian officials showcased a pilot project that links the national witness-protection register with the Interior Ministry’s visa-issuance platform, allowing courts to trigger fast-track entry visas and tax codes for relocated witnesses within 72 hours. The system, tested this summer in cooperation with Germany and Slovenia, could serve as a blueprint for a future EU-wide protocol under EMPACT. For multinationals the initiative matters because witness-relocation cases increasingly involve employees who cooperate with anti-mafia or anti-corruption probes; enabling them to work legally in a host country reduces severance costs and preserves institutional knowledge. The workshop’s outcomes will feed into Italy’s preparations for its EU Council presidency in the first half of 2028, where Rome intends to table legislative proposals on mutual recognition of witness-protection documents.