At their EU Council meeting on Tuesday 9 December, the last under the Danish Presidency, the EU Justice Ministers approved conclusions on “model provisions” in the field of EU criminal law, with the aim of making criminal law in the European Union more coherent and effective.
These updated provisions constitute a ‘toolbox’ that should enable future legislative negotiations on criminal offences under EU law. They will facilitate the interpretation and transposition of EU criminal law at national level, without being binding.
The EU Council thus recalls its previous guidelines of 2002, 2009 and 2024, which had already affirmed the value of enabling a coherent approach to the horizontal rules applicable in the various acts of European criminal law concerning jurisdiction, aggravating circumstances or levels of penalties.
While a host of new instruments have been adopted since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, Member States have agreed on the need to modernise and, where necessary, extend the scope of the standard provisions to take account of developments in recent years.
The new model provisions apply to all aspects of criminal law, such as the definition of offences, the liability of legal persons, the determination of penalties, aggravating circumstances, jurisdiction and limitation periods.
They therefore propose a common language to support harmonisation in line with the prerogatives of the Commission, the European Parliament and the Member States.
The conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/jww (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)