The author argues that the European Evidence Warrant (EEW) has the potential to speed up national investigations in the areas of the protection of the financial interests of the European Union. This is because the legislator has taken care to include a wide range of related offences, exempting them from the requirement of double criminality. Evidence will have to be produced within 60 days of receipt of the EEW. However, it must be remembered that the EEW only concerns a narrow range of evidence and that further mutual recognition provisions will have to be adopted if a wider range of… Read more

The German Federal Constitutional Court was asked to decide upon the constitutional compatibility of the changes foreseen by the Treaty of Lisbon and its implementation via various acts of legislation by the German parliamentary organs.1 Above all, the complainants (inter alia, a number of Members of the German Bundestag and the parliamentary group “DIE LINKE”) argued for constitutional breaches because, in their view, the federal government delegated powers to the EU that it was not competent to do and to such an extent as to undermine the authority of the Federal parliamentary organs (the Bundestag and the Bundesrat). The Constitutional… Read more

OLAF is the only Community body whose tasks include administrative investigations on behaviour detrimental to the financial interests of the EU that may have “criminal” and “trans-national” aspects simultaneously. Trans-national European crime requires new solutions to be found in what is commonly referred to as European criminal law. For this reason the protection of financial interests has been the motor of the emerging European criminal law and continues to play a vital role.1 Even before the existence of OLAF, its predecessor, the unit charged with the protection of the financial interests within the Commission (UCLAF), put forward first instruments on… Read more

The article aims at pointing out the fundamental contributions made by the area of the protection of the financial interests (PFI) of the European Community to the establishment and development of a criminal law system of the European Union; a contribution which still continues.
From the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty up until now, various texts adopted in the field of the protection of the EC’s financial interests have played a “cutting-edge” role for most of the instruments which compose the “Common Space on Justice” nowadays. The article demonstrates this continuous role by referring to the most original and innovative content of these texts, starting at the very first proposals of the Commission in 1976 and presenting the relevant case law of the Court of Justice (on sanctions, the principle of assimilation and the criminal law competence of the Community). Examples for this “cutting-edge” role are, for instance, … Read more

This article outlines the framework of the European Community’s primary and secondary law regarding the protection of its financial interests. It starts in part I with an historical review ranging from the first attempts of the Commission to harmonise the criminal law of the Member States with regards to the fight against fraud detrimental to the EC budget, the development of the Anti-Fraud Coordination Unit (UCLAF) and the embedding of the financial interests in the Maastricht Treaty. The article continues with a presentation of the existing legal framework for the protection of the EC’s financial interests in part II. First,… Read more

I. The Legal Status of the Single Currency The international law fully recognises the monetary sovereignty of the States and their exclusive competence to define their currency. This definition is binding on any person who chooses to use a specific currency, under the terms of the “lex monetae” or monetary law. The jurisprudence of the international jurisdictions (in particular, the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague,1 in a judgement of 12 July 1929,2 allows conclusion of the universal principle that a State is entitled to regulate its own currency. This is also reflected in recital 8 of Council… Read more