Activites

• 2008/11/11 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Decision 2008/841
  • OJ L 300 11.11.2008, p. 0042
• #2899
• 2008/10/24 Council Meeting
• 2008/10/24 End of procedure in Parliament
• 2008/10/24 Act adopted by Council after consultation of Parliament
• #2783
• 2008/06/05 Council Meeting
  • 2783
• #2807
• 2007/06/12 Council Meeting
• #2768
• 2006/12/04 Council Meeting
  • 2768
• #2725
• 2006/04/27 Council Meeting
  • 2725 summary

    Pending the lifting of some parliamentary and scrutiny reservations, the Council reached a consensus on a Framework Decision on the fight against organised crime.For the purposes of this Framework Decision, “criminal organisation” means a structured association, established over a period of time, of more than two persons, acting in concert with a view to committing offences which are punishable by deprivation of liberty or a detention order of a maximum of at least 4 years or a more serious penalty in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit.Concerning the offences relating to participation in a criminal organisation, each Member State shall take the necessary measures to ensure that either the types of conduct related to a criminal organisation described in a) or the type of conduct described in b) are regarded as offences:a)      conduct by any person who, with intent and with knowledge of either the aim and general activity of the organisation or its intention to commit the offences in question, actively takes part in the organisation's criminal activities, including the provision of information or material means, the recruitment of new members and all forms of financing of its activities, knowing that such participation will contribute to the achievement of the organisation's criminal activities;b)      conduct by any person consisting in an agreement with one or more persons that an activity should be pursued, which if carried out, would amount to the commission of offences falling within the Framework Decision, even if that person does not take part in the actual execution of the activity.Regarding penalties, each Member State shall take the necessary measures to ensure that:-       the offence referred to in (a) is punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least between two and five years; or-       that the offence referred to in (b) is punishable by the same maximum term of imprisonment as the offence at which the agreement is aimed, or by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least between two and five years.Point 3.3.2 of the Hague Programme stated that the approximation of substantive criminal law  reserves the same purposes and concerns areas of particular serious crime with cross border dimensions and that priority should be given to areas of crime that are specifically mentioned in the Treaties. The definition of offences relating to participation in a criminal organisation should therefore be approximated in all the Member States. Thus, this Framework Decision encompasses crimes which are typically committed in a criminal organisation. Moreover, penalties corresponding to the seriousness of these offences should be envisaged against natural and legal persons who committed them or are responsible for their commission.

• 2005/10/26 Results of vote in Parliament
  • Results of vote in Parliament
  • T6-0405/2005 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Bill Newton Dunn (ALDE, UK) and made some amendments to the Commission’s proposal:-A new article states that Member States shall ensure that Europol is strengthened in its role as a channel of information to combat crime, in order to enable it to perform the task of supplying Member States with information and intelligence making for more effective results in terms of preventing and fighting organised crime. Europol may not be strengthened unless it becomes a European Union body subject to democratic control by the European Parliament.-Each Member State shall establish a Serious and Organised Crime Unit and an Asset Recovery Unit, to ensure coordination at national level and to act as a single contact point.-There are new provisions on witness protection and police protection: each Member State must adopt the necessary measures to ensure that persons who supply information useful for the prevention, detection and/or punishment of crimes committed by criminal organisations, whether they are witnesses or offenders are adequately protected against the risks of retaliation, threats or direct intimidation targeting themselves or their relatives.-Member States will collect statistics on the offences referred to in the legislation and forward those statistics to the Commission, which will draw up harmonised and comparable statistics as from 2006.-Each Member State must take measures to ensure that, in addition to the penalties already laid down, persons found guilty of offences may also be made subject to a prescribed list of penalties such as the seizure of articles which were used to commit the offence concerned, publication of judicial decisions, and disqualification from public office.The offences referred to in the legislation must be punishable by a term of imprisonment longer than those already prescribed where the aim of the criminal organisation is terrorism, or the criminal organisation organises trafficking in human beings, or where the criminal organisation is of the mafia type, i.e. it makes use of the intimidation inherent in bonds of association and of the power over others and code of silence which arise from that intimidation for the purposes of committing offences, acquiring directly or indirectly the power to manage or control economic activities, licences, authorisations, public contracts and services, gaining unjust enrichment or advantage for itself or others, impeding or obstructing the free exercise of the right to vote, or procuring votes for its members or for others in elections.

• 2005/10/25 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2005/09/29 Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading
  • A6-0277/2005
• 2005/09/26 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 2005/04/12 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2005/01/19 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(2005)0006 summary

    PURPOSE : to improve the fight against organised crime.PROPOSED ACT : Council Framework Decision.CONTENT : the EU has taken the lead in the fight against organised crime since the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam European Council of 16 and 17 June 1997, which adopted the first action plan to combat organised crime. In 1998, the Council adopted a Joint Action on participation in a criminal organization. However, it is now necessary to provide the Union with a more powerful and ambitious instrument to approximate more closely Member States' criminal legislation and improve cooperation in order to combat organised crime more effectively, inter alia by harmonizing the minimum thresholds of criminal penalties.Moreover, as was stated in the Hague programme, the citizens of Europe rightly expect the European Union to take a more effective, joint approach to cross-border problems such as organised crime. With the adoption of a legislative proposal and a strategy document the European Commission has done precisely that and stepped up the fight against crime, be it organised or unorganised.This particular proposal for a Council Framework Decision aims at harmonizing the definition of what constitutes a criminal organisation. Such an organisation is understood to be a structured association of at least two persons who, for material gain, commit serious crimes punishable with at least four years of imprisonment, such as trafficking in weapons, drugs or human beings, economic crimes or money laundering.It also proposes to punish leaders of such organisations with an imprisonment of at least ten years and participation, including supportive activities for the organisation, with five years of imprisonment.The proposal also envisages lowering of the sentence of those members of criminal organisation who cooperate with the authorities with a view to avoiding criminal activities to take place or assist in identifying and bringing to justice other offenders.The proposal also stipulates that Member States must cooperate and consult each other to coordinatetheir action and decide which Member State will prosecute the alleged offenders.As regards the protection of and assistance to victims, the proposal highlights that EU attaches particular importance to protecting and assisting victims. In cases involving organised crime, and in particular trafficking in human beings, provision must be made to ensure that a complaint or statement by the victim is not necessary for initiating prosecution. There are many cases where victims are afraid of reprisals by mafia-type organisations against themselves or their families.Lastly, it should be noted that the new text also takes account of parameters that have changed since 1998:- the Treaty of Amsterdam, which succeeded the Maastricht Treaty, introduced new types of legal instruments, more effective than the "joint action"; the framework decision is now the proper instrument for approximating criminal law in the Union in this area;- the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, known as the "Palermo Convention", now provides an international framework which details the offences connected with participation in an organised criminal group; the Convention was approved by the European Community on 21 May 2004;- Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA of 13 June 2002 on combating terrorism is a reference point which must be taken into account; it defines a "terrorist group" on the basis of the definition of "criminal organisation" in Joint Action 1998/733/JHA, but it is a more comprehensive instrument.

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

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(2005)0006
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A6-0277/2005
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T6-0405/2005
• Debate in Council: 2725
• Debate in Council: 2768
• Debate in Council: 2783
• : Decision 2008/841
• : OJ L 300 11.11.2008, p. 0042

History

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