The European Commission has combed through the Member States' transposition of the 2014 Directive on the criminal-law protection of the euro and other currencies against counterfeiting (see EUROPE 11074/33). In a report to the European Parliament and the EU Council published on Tuesday 9 July, it expressed rather mixed satisfaction.
Member States had until 23 May 2016 at the latest to transpose the Directive into their national laws. As of the report’s writing, all Member States with the exception of Ireland had notified the transposition, the Commission specified.
According to the report, the majority of Member States have duly transposed the provisions of the Directive concerning the criminalisation of certain offences, sanctions providing for a maximum penalty of at least 5 years for the distribution of counterfeit money and a maximum penalty of at least 8 years for the production of counterfeit money, as well as the provisions requiring Member States to allow for the potential use of certain investigation tools.
Nevertheless, the Commission has identified a number of recurrent transposition problems. Among other things, these concern provisions relating to preparatory offences which, in several Member States, have not been transposed into national law as autonomous offences but instead assimilated into attempts at production offences, the Commission explained. Thus, the intention to commit the production offence would be an additional constituent element of the preparatory offences, whereas the Directive does not require such an element.
Another less common problem is that some Member States have established, contrary to the Directive, separate categories for minor or non-aggravated forms of offences defined by the Directive, for which penalties remain below the level required by the Directive.
In addition, a clear majority of Member States with the euro as their currency have not transposed the article requiring them to establish their jurisdiction in cases where counterfeit euro banknotes or coins have been detected in their territory, but where the defined offences have been committed outside their territory, says the Commission.
In view of the problems it identified, the Commission warns that it will not hesitate to take all appropriate measures, including the opening of infringement proceedings, if necessary. See the report: https://bit.ly/2XDSxbQ (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)