Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – Towards an EU criminal policy: ensuring the effective implementation of EU policies through criminal law

This Communication aims to present a framework for the further development of an EU Criminal Policy under the Lisbon Treaty. The EU now has an explicit legal basis for the adoption of criminal law directives to ensure the effective implementation of EU policies which have been subject to harmonisation measures.

An EU Criminal Policy should have an overall goal to foster citizens' confidence in the fact that they live in a Europe of freedom, security and justice, that EU law protecting their interests is fully implemented and enforced and that at the same time the EU will act in full respect of subsidiarity and proportionality and other basic Treaty principles.

EUR-Lex: COM(2011)573: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2011:573:FIN

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