Dear Readers, On 12 July 2023, after more than five years of, in part, very fraught negotiations, the European Parliament and the Council signed the so-called “e-evidence package”. This marked the turning point in the cooperation between law enforcement authorities and service providers. Criminal offences prepared and carried out exclusively offline are a thing of the past, which is why electronic evidence is becoming increasingly important for law enforcement authorities. However, e-evidence is frequently stored in another State and, until now, cross-border access to such evidence was often very burdensome, often resulting in possibly already getting lost and causing investigations… Read more

Dear Readers, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to help us in many ways. One of the promising fields in which AI can be employed is in the fight against crime, as is spotlighted by a number of contributions in this issue, e.g. on AI’s impact on anti-money-laundering regimes or on the employment of AI to prevent cross-border human trafficking. AI also shows its immense potential when applied in the field of forensic analysis, where robots equipped with advanced imaging and analysis capabilities can assist. They are not only capable of processing evidence, collecting fingerprints, analysing DNA samples, and performing… Read more

Dear Readers, This eucrim issue focuses on the link between administrative and criminal law, which is becoming conspicuously manifest in environmental law. An in-depth evaluation of Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law revealed that it has had no noticeable impact on Member State practice in the enforcement of EU environmental law. On 15 December 2021, the European Commission responded by adopting a proposal for a new directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of the environment through criminal law, intended to replace said Directive 2008/99/EC (COM(2021) 851 final). The improvements… Read more

Dear Readers, The next two issues of eucrim will focus on the relationship between administrative and criminal law. Topics include, for instance, the information flow between authorities conducting administrative investigations and those conducting criminal investigations at the European and national levels. This is of particular pertinence in the new institutional setting for the protection of the EU’s financial interests with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office – the first supranational authority tasked with investigating and prosecuting crimes – because the Office’s success heavily relies on cooperative support from administrative bodies, e.g. OLAF or authorities responsible for the financial management of EU… Read more

Dear Readers, The EU’s restrictive measures (commonly referred to as “sanctions”) are neither new nor is Russia the only country subject to them, but the current regime against Russia is certainly unprecedented in its breadth. The EU is also in unchartered waters concerning the seriousness of the context. This also applies to our determination to coordinate and enforce these sanctions, and in turn requires us to address questions pertaining to their objectives and ambition. In the EU, sanctions are implemented by Member States. However, the European Commission is ideally placed to coordinate their actions, connect the dots, and bridge any… Read more

Dear Readers, The past year was again a challenging one for Europe and the world, due to the persisting COVID-19 pandemic. 2021 was also marked by one of the largest global money laundering scandals in recent history – the “Pandora Papers.” It demonstrated the growing scale of the money laundering threat and the persistence of launderers in abusing the international financial system to hide their illicit proceeds. We are facing a combination of older and newer money laundering methods – both requiring coordinated action from governments in Europe and around the world. Traditional money laundering uses offshore jurisdictions while concealing… Read more