Brussels, 23/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 23 September, the Council of Ministers of the EU confirmed the text of the compromise agreed with the European Parliament on 20 September on a draft directive on a European protection order. The European protection order aims to increase the protection of victims of crime travelling between member states of the EU.
“The EPO directive is an important step towards the construction of the European area of justice, which will protect women who are threatened, by ensuring their physical, psychological and sexual integrity and their dignity as they move within Europe. Protection of victims and prevention of new crimes need to inspire European criminal law”, said Carmen Romero López (S&D, Spain), rapporteur on the subject for the committee on civil liberties of the European Parliament.
The European Commission has also approved the text, stating that it is satisfied with the compromise reached. The directive was initially proposed by 12 member states in 2009.
In order for the text to be adopted, the European Parliament will now need to endorse the text at committee level, before the Council and subsequently the Parliament plenary will vote on the text, which will allow the legislative procedure to be concluded quickly (early second reading agreement). The Polish Presidency hopes that this process can be concluded this year. The directive would then need to be transposed by all member states' international law within three years.
The new rules focus mainly on crimes which may endanger the victim's life, physical, psychological and sexual integrity or personal liberty. The ultimate goal is to avoid new acts of crime and to mitigate the consequences of previous acts of crime. The new rules will allow any member state of the EU in which these protection measures are a matter of criminal law (issuing state) to issue a European Protection Order to any other EU member state (executing state), for the protection orders in that country to be taken in the framework of criminal, civil or administrative procedures. The executing state will then have to take measures with a view to continuing the protection of that person.
These measures will include obligations or prohibitions imposed on the person causing danger, such as: - an obligation not to enter certain places or defined areas where the protected person resides or which he/she visits; - a prohibition or regulation of contact, in any form, with a protected person, including by phone, electronic or ordinary mail, fax or any other means; - a prohibition or regulation on approaching the protected person closer than prescribed distance.
In the event of a breach of one or more of the measures taken by the executing state, the competent authority of that state would have the powers to impose criminal sanctions and take any other criminal or non-criminal measures.
Complementary proposal in the civil law area. Those cases where protection measures are a matter of civil law in the issuing state will be dealt with in a separate legislative act, a regulation proposed by the European Commission in May 2011. The two instruments (the agreed directive and the proposed regulation) will in the end complement each other and should cover the broadest possible number of protection measures issued throughout the EU, given the various national regimes in this field. (LC/transl.fl)