Brussels, 07/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 7 April, the European Commission indicated that it had launched an infringement procedure against Greece, the only EU country where a foreign victim of an aggression is not compensated. Under the terms of the 2004 directive, EU countries must have a nation compensation system in place for victims of deliberate acts of violence committed on their territory. The report was published by the Commission yesterday on application of Directive 2004/80/EC on compensating victims of crime and draws up a balance sheet of transposition of this directive into national legislation. In total, 22 member states sent in their directive transposition measures before the deadline on 1 January 2006. Four countries did this late. One country, Greece, has failed to notify national transposition measures and an infringement procedure is being launched against the country. The directive includes a compensation regime for victims of intentional violent crime committed on the respective territories of member states. A cooperation system between the authorities of member states was also set up to facilitate access to compensation for victims in cases where a crime has been committed in a member state other than in the one in which the victim resides. This would, for example, cover an Italian living in Brussels, who goes to a congress in Slovenia but is victim to a robbery with violence. As a citizen residing in Brussels, s/he will be able to request compensation on the basis of the directive. The demand for compensation will be sent directly from Belgium to Slovenia where the crime was committed. It is this member state which is responsible for examining the demand and for payment of compensation to the victim. (B.C./trans/rh)