Brussels, 20/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Recent Eurobarometer surveys have clearly shown that tackling crime is seen as a priority by Europeans. Citizens expect criminals not to be able to hide behind borders or exploit differences between national legal systems. At the same time, criminal law is still a relatively young field at EU level. The Commission believes, therefore, that it is essential to design a clear European criminal policy enabling the EU to define if, when and how to use criminal law to better enforce a policy. It was with a view to this end that, on Tuesday 20 September, it adopted a communication, “Towards an EU Criminal Policy”, in which it sets out the strategy and principles it intends to apply when using EU criminal law to strengthen the enforcement of European policies and protect the interests of the citizens.
The Lisbon Treaty now provides a framework that makes this possible, as it allows the EU to make use of criminal law to strengthen the enforcement of EU policies and rules. Criminal sanctions are not, in the Commission's view, the best enforcement tools for all policies. It points out, however, that applying criminal sanctions can make some European rules more effective, from preventing financial market manipulation to protecting EU taxpayers' money from fraud and protecting the environment. So, “the use of criminal sanctions should be reserved for particularly serious offences and be preceded by a sound and thorough analysis”, the Commission says in a press release. The communication adopted on Tuesday states, too, that: - criminal law must always remain a measure of last resort; - criminal law sanctions are reserved for particularly serious offences; - criminal law measures are fundamental rights-sensitive: new legislation requires the strict respect of fundamental rights as guaranteed by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights; - every decision on what type of criminal law measure or sanction to adopt must be accompanied by clear factual evidence and respect the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
The Commission says that criminal law measures adopted at EU level by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers differ from national criminal law in one important respect: they cannot impose direct obligations on individuals. EU criminal law only can lead to sanctions being imposed on individuals once a national parliament has incorporated it into national legislation.
Estimates put the total cost of crime to society as a whole at €233 billion a year in the EU. (OL/transl.rt)