Activites

• 2004/08/06 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Directive 2004/80
  • OJ L 261 06.08.2004, p. 0015-0018
• #2579
• 2004/04/29 Council Meeting
• 2004/04/29 End of procedure in Parliament
• 2004/04/29 Act adopted by Council after consultation of Parliament
• #2574
• 2004/03/30 Council Meeting
  • 2574 summary

    The Council reached a general approach, subject to Parliamentary scrutiny reservations from the German and the United Kingdom delegations, on the basis of a Presidency compromise on a Directive on compensation to crime victims. The Council instructed its preparatory bodies to finalise the text of the Directive with a view to its adoption before 1 May 2004, as requested by the European Council on 25 and 26 March 2004.�

• #2538
• 2003/11/06 Council Meeting
  • 2538
• 2003/10/23 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T5-0451/2003 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Roberta AGNELILLI (UEN, Italy) by 431 votes in favour, 35 against and 5 abstentions. The main amendments are as follows: - a new recital states that the needs of crime victims should be considered and dealt with in an integrated fashion, so as to avoid partial or inconsistent measures which could lead to secondary victimisation; -in view of the wide divergences in national legislation as regards compensation to crime victims, the first step should be to establish minimum standards on the matter, while aiming for future harmonisation on a gradual basis. The Commission had stated that an approach aiming at a minimum standard rather than harmonisation is to be preferred; - a minimum standard should dependants and spouses and first-degree relatives of crime victims who have died or become permanently and irreversibly incapacitated as a result of injuries sustained. This replaces the Commission's wording of close relatives; - the minimum standard should be based on the approximation of the existing rules on civil and criminal liability of each Member State and on the model that underlies all the existing compensation schemes, rather than the Commission's wording of tort laws; - there should not be undue delay in compensation the victim, especially where the offender cannot be identified, located or put on trial or lacks the means to pay, or where there are clear signs that the trial will last more than one year; - the directive has a dual objective of establish a minimum standard for compensation of victims of crime and to facilitate access to such compensation in cross-border situations; - each Member State must compensate victims who have become permanently incapacitated or have sustained personal injury directly caused by an intentional crime or by an act of grave negligence for which the author of the crime can reasonably be held responsible against the victim's life, health or personal, physical or psychological integrity, committed on its territory; - compensation will cover pecuniary losses resulting from material damage and damage to property, and non pecuniary losses resulting from non material damage; - Member States may define a maximum amount of no less than EUR 100 000 rather (than EUR 60 000) for the total compensation that can be paid out to an individual applicant. This amount will be updated annually in line with the cost of living index as defined officially by Eurostat; - Member States may set a minimum threshold not exceeding EUR 250 in order to exclude the award of compensation to victims who have sustained only minor injuries, defined as injuries that do not have a significant pecuniary or non-pecuniary, direct or indirect, impact on the victim's life and its quality; - Member States may make the award conditional upon unsuccessful efforts to obtain and enforce a judgment on compensation against the offender and having exhausted the possibilities of compensation through state or private insurance schemes; - Member States must establish the harmonised compensation application form as well as the harmonised form for communication between authorities. �

• 2003/10/22 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2003/09/30 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0330/2003
• 2002/11/07 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2002/10/16 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(2002)0562 summary

    PURPOSE : to establish a minimum standard for compensation to crime victims in the EU and to facilitate the access to such compensation in cross-border situations. CONTENT : it is well-known that victims often face difficulties in getting compensation from the offender of the crime, since the offender may remain unknown or lack the means to pay any damages awarded to the victim. For this reason, thirteen Member States have so far introduced state-funded general compensation schemes for crime victims. However, these schemes show large divergences between them. The amount of compensation a victim can obtain is largely determined by in which Member State the crime was committed, due to the different criteria applied. No assistance is available for victims who need to apply for compensation from another Member State. The proposal is the Commission's response to a request from the European Council, which in its meeting in Tampere 1999 called for the drawing up of minimum standards of crime victims in the EU. The proposed directive obliges Member States to award compensation to victims of intentional crime and terrorism committed on their territory. The compensation should cover all losses the victim has sustained as a direct result of the crime. Member States may make the compensation conditional upon that the victim has tried to get compensation from the offender before turning to the State. Compensation should also be awarded to close relatives and dependants of victims who have died as a result of the injuries caused by the crime. To be more specific, the amount of compensation shall be determined: - on a case-by-case basis where the compensation, taken as a whole, does not deviate significantly from what has been or could be expected to be awarded in damages to the applicant in accordance with civil law in the Member State responsible for paying the compensation; or - in accordane with pre-defined tariffs, for the entire compensation or for some or all of the individual items of losses that is covered by the compensation. More importantly, Member States may define a maximum amount of no less that EUR 60 000 for the total compensation that can be paid out to an individual. The compensation shall be defined on the basis of the national laws on damages in each Member State, in order to take into account socio-economic differences within the EU and to respect different legal traditions among the Member States. When EU citizens or residents become victims of a crime abroad, they shall have the right to turn to an authority in their Member State of residence to get assistance when applying to the Member State where the crime was committed. This will ensure that tourists, temporary workers and other citizens using their right to free movement in the EU will have easy access to compensation in practice, even when the crime was committed outside their Member State of habitual residence. Lastly, it should be noted that the present proposal will complement the action taken by the EU in judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, in particular the framework decision 2001/220/JHA on the standing of victims in criminal proceedings(refer to CNS/2000/0813).�

  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/justice/', 'title': 'Justice'}],

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(2002)0562
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A5-0330/2003
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0451/2003
• Debate in Council: 2538
• Debate in Council: 2574
• : Directive 2004/80
• : OJ L 261 06.08.2004, p. 0015-0018

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)