The Council of the EU adopted its negotiating position at the beginning of March (see EUROPE 11978) but at the European Parliament, work on the directive for tackling fraud and counterfeiting by non-cash means has just begun with the examination on Tuesday 27 March of the report drawn up by Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann (S&D, Germany) at the civil liberties committee (LIBE).
It should be pointed out that the draft directive provides a list of action relating to fraud and counterfeiting by non-cash means, to which the member states should apply criminal penalties. Ms Kaufmann said, “This is an important step in the Lisbonisation of criminal law in the EU”.
Her report pays particular attention to stepping up victim support because damages to reputation and credit ratings and serious emotional damages can often aggravate the consequences of fraud, the MEP argues.
She believes member states should, for example, attempt to ensure that victims receive a list of bodies that specifically deal with the different aspects of offences relating to stolen identity and victim support.
The rapporteur would particularly like to facilitate the flagging up of offences, which could include the introduction of secure national mechanisms for flagging up online fraud. Eva Joly (Greens/EFA, France) shared this point of view and suggested setting up a “European financial intelligence cell”.
Although the member states would like to extend the transposition deadline to 30 months, as opposed to the 24 months proposed by the Commission, the rapporteur would like to shorten this to 12 months and make it obligatory for the Commission to present an assessment of the directive at the end of a four year period.
The rapporteur explained that in 2013, fraud affecting cards in circulation in the Single euro Payments Area (SEPA) led to losses of €1.44 billion and that this was “just the tip of the iceberg” because there are no exhaustive statistics at an EU level on fraud using non-cash means, which is another loophole the rapporteur would like to tackle.
The political groups have until 11 April to submit their amendments to this report, in view of a committee vote planned for 25 June next. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)