Press Release: Towards a reasonable use of criminal law to better enforce EU rules and help protect taxpayers’ money

The European Commission adopted on the 20 September 2011 a Communication with the title 'Towards an EU Criminal Policy'. In the Communication the Commission has for the first time set out the strategy and principles it intends to apply when using EU criminal law to strengthen the enforcement of European policies and protect the interests of the citizens.

Fighting crime is a priority for Europeans. Citizens expect that criminals cannot hide behind borders or exploit differences between national legal systems. At the same time, criminal law is still a relatively young field at EU level.

The Commission argues that it is essential to design a clear European Criminal Policy enabling the Union to define if, when and how to use criminal law to better enforce a policy. The Lisbon Treaty now provides a framework that makes this possible, as it allows the EU to make use of criminal law to strengthen the enforcement of EU policies and rules.

EUobserver, 21.9.11: Brussels to beef up EU criminal policy http://euobserver.com/22/113680

European Commission: Justice: Criminal Justice: Criminal law policy http://ec.europa.eu/justice/criminal/criminal-law-policy/index_en.htm

European Commission: Communication: Towards an EU Criminal Policy: Ensuring the effective implementation of EU policies through criminal law (COM (2011)573) http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/files/com201105733_en.pdf

ESO: Background information: EU's Reding to push for criminal and civil law reform http://www.europeansources.info/record/eus-reding-to-push-for-criminal-and-civil-law-reform/

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