Brussels, 05/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of European Commissioners Viviane Reding (Justice), Olli Rehn (Economic and Monetary Affairs) and Algirdas Semeta (Taxation, Customs Union and Anti-Fraud), the European Commission presented a draft directive on Tuesday 5 February, with a view to improving the protection of the euro and other currencies against counterfeiting by harmonising the minimum criteria on criminal sanctions (including imprisonment). The draft facilitates the possibility of cross-border investigations and establishes minimum and maximum common penalties to fight against offences which, in the Commission's opinion, have cost €500 million since the single currency was introduced.
The new directive therefore maintains most of the arrangements (especially the definitions of infringements) of the Council framework decision of 2000 (2000/383/JHA), which encourages the member states to punish the production, circulation, import, export and transport of counterfeit money (notes or coins) by a maximum penalty of not less than eight years in prison. However, the draft directive imposes additional requirements to punish these offences. Thus, while member states can be limited to imposing simple fines (imprisonment is not excluded, however) for the production and circulation of counterfeit money for amounts below €5,000, they will be obliged to apply prison penalties (up to a maximum penalty of at least eight years) when the counterfeiting concerns amounts between €5,000 and €10,000, and minimum prison penalties of at least six months and maximum penalties of at least eight years for counterfeiting offences regarding amounts over €10,000, according to the circumstances and seriousness of the acts committed.
With regard to prevention and investigation, in order to detect counterfeiting cases at national and transnational levels, member states will have to make available to the investigators the same investigation tools that are used for fighting organised crime and other serious forms of crime (including interception of communications and monitoring bank accounts). Lastly, to prevent and eliminate the distribution of counterfeit money, the directive obliges member states to send counterfeit bank notes and coins - seized even when legal proceedings are under way - for examination to national analysis centres, so as to enable the swift detection of similar counterfeit euros in circulation.
The directive, which will replace the framework decision 2000 and will complete a package of measures already in force to protect the euro, will have to be adopted by co-decision (the estimated date being 2015). (FG/transl.fl)