In a ruling handed down on Thursday 7 November (Case C-126/23), the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that Italian legislation which automatically excludes certain family members of a victim of homicide is contrary to Directive 2004/80 on compensation to crime victims.
In Italy, the parents, sister and children of a victim of homicide are asking to be paid “fair and appropriate” compensation, taking into account the harm they have suffered.
However, under the Italian compensation scheme for violent intentional crime, the parents of a deceased person can only receive compensation in the absence of a spouse and children, and brothers and sisters can only receive compensation in the absence of parents.
In its ruling, the Court points out that EU law requires Member States to establish a compensation scheme for direct and indirect victims (close family members) of violent intentional crime. Although they have a margin of discretion, EU countries cannot limit themselves to purely symbolic compensation in view of the seriousness of the offence committed. In addition, where the national scheme concerned provides for fixed rate compensation, the compensation scale must be sufficiently detailed so as to avoid the possibility that the compensation provided for a specific type of violence proves to be manifestly insufficient.
According to the Court, a national scheme that automatically excludes certain family members from entitlement to all compensation solely because of the presence of other family members, without taking into account other considerations (such as, inter alia, the material consequences for those family members of the homicide of the person concerned or the fact that they were dependants of the deceased person or lived with him or her), cannot result in “fair and appropriate” compensation.
To see the judgment of the Court of Justice: https://aeur.eu/f/e84 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)