Brussels, 15/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the European Commission adopted a communication on stepping up the prevention of "volume" crime in the EU, and especially juvenile delinquency, urban crime and drug-related crime. As most actions in this field are conducted at national level, it presents the support that Europe can provide to meet the objective of the Amsterdam Treaty to give citizens a high level of protection in an area of freedom, security and justice.
Juvenile delinquency, urban crime and drug-related crime, which take the form of house breaking, theft from vehicles and in the street, are one of the main sources of concern among European citizens. To combat offences of this kind, the Commission recommends a two-level approach: - first of all, strong measures at local and regional level (the establishment of national crime prevention policies is therefore essential preliminary action); - and then cooperation action at EU level, when it is possible to take advantage of work achieved by the EUCPN (European Crime Prevention Network) and Community funding, namely the AGIS programme (managed by the Commission).
In the Commission's view, the main tasks and activities to be performed at the EU level are: exchange of experience between policy makers and experts in prevention; define and agree priorities for action; agree on crime prevention policies/measures which have been proven to work (good practices); agree on uniform methodologies to prepare, implement and evaluate prevention policies; enhance awareness throughout the Union on the relevance of general crime prevention; agree on joint research to be undertaken to fill research gaps; undertake joint prevention projects; monitor and evaluate national prevention policies; improve the compatibility of national statistics to identify differences in the level of crime. The Commission specifies that these tasks would have the support of member States "while keeping in mind that the activities which the Member States undertake jointly in the context of the EUCPN can never substitute concrete national crime prevention activities".
The Commission also announces its intention to submit a formal proposal concerning the future institutional structure of the EUCPN following its assessment this year, proposing that the work within the network should focus during coming years on: - priority types of crime. For the Commission, the exact types of crime currently taken into consideration in the EUCPN (youth delinquency, drug-related crime and urban crime) are too broad. It therefore suggests that they should be sub-divided between all kinds of infringements, offences and crimes under three categories (for example, street robberies, theft from vehicles, burglaries). It believes that "priority types of crime should be selected for particular attention" on the basis of that list. - good practices inventory. The Commission agrees it is appropriate to have an inventory of good practices existing for each form of selected crime, so that the Member States may use it as a base; - a common methodology and statistics. According to the communication, it is imperative that a common method is agreed upon for the developing, implementing and assessing of concrete projects for crime prevention. The Commission also presses for improved comparability of Member State statistics. - monitoring and evaluation. On the basis of experience gained in the context of the joint assessment mechanism for organised crime, the Commission considers that regular monitoring and evaluation of Member States volume crime prevention policies should be the subject of a similar initiative at EU level.
After the European Parliament and the Council had given their opinions on this communication and conclusions of the EUCPN evaluation expected by mid year, the Commission intends to submit by end 2004 proposals aimed at giving body to these guidelines.