Where does the protection of human and fundamental rights stand in Europe, particularly in the European Union of the 28 European Member States? Where can the « common heritage of political traditions, ideals, freedom and the rule of law », which is evoked in the preamble of the ECHR, be seen today? The article responds to these questions by arguing first that the European Community (later the European Union) has – from the outset – been in a pursuit race regarding the effective protection of fundamental rights. Effects of this phenomenon are still apparent today. Examples given in the article show that the European Union falls short of the aforementioned common heritage. Regarding asylum rights, for example, the CJEU does not completely follow the ECtHR case law. Regarding the European Arrest Warrant, it was a recent call of the German Federal Constitutional Court that triggered a change of thinking at … Read more

I. Introduction To promote the protection of the financial interests of the European Union, the Commission has introduced a proposal for the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (in the following: EPPO initiative).1 This initiative is based on Arts. 86 and 325 TFEU that provide the competence for the European Union to counter fraud and other offenses affecting its financial interests. The objective of this initiative is to establish a coherent European system for more efficient and effective investigation and prosecution as well as to enhance the deterrence of offenses affecting the financial interests of the European Union. It… Read more

I. Introduction After many years of reflection and preparation, negotiations on the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (hereinafter EPPO)1 commenced three years ago.2 The proposal is well known to readers of the eucrim journal. During the course of negotiations in the Council of the European Union, the proposal has evolved substantially and in a number of ways, now envisaging a collegiate structure, shared competences between the EPPO and national authorities, and wide autonomy on the part of the European Delegated Prosecutors handling the cases, accompanied by supervisory powers vested in… Read more

The notion of the “cost of non-Europe” brings us back to 1988, when a report bearing his name was published by Professor Paolo Cecchini, who had been asked at the time by the Delors Commission to investigate and quantify the untapped potential of the Single Market and to make the economic case for the removal of physical, technical, and fiscal barriers between the, then, twelve Member States of the European Communities.1 Now, in 2016, the Internal Market is perceived by citizens and politicians as a done deal, while the European Union is seen as a complex entity of a somehow… Read more

The European Union performs numerous tasks. In order to carry out these tasks, the Union relies on money that is provided for by the Member States, including customs duties. This article initially describes the principles of the legal framework within which Member States
- levy customs duties;
- investigate criminal offences committed in this context;
- cooperate with one another.
In particular, the article stresses that the levying of customs duties, on the one hand, and criminal prosecution, on the other, serve different purposes, for which the European Union and the national legislators have established separate legal rules. As a consequence, different regulations for administrative procedure, on the one hand, and criminal procedure, on the other, must be simultaneously observed.
The article subsequently deals with Art. 12 of Regulation (EC) No 515/97 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2015/1525 of 9 September 2015. This new provision seeks to establish that information collected as part of administrative … Read more