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This news item continues the overview of previous eucrim issues of recent rule-of-law developments in Hungary as far as they relate to European law (previous overview → eucrim 2/2022, 83-84). The overview covers the period from the second half of July until the end of October 2022.

This news item continues the overview of recent rule-of-law developments in Poland (as far as they relate to European law) since the last update in eucrim 2-2022, 82-83.

On 23 September 2022, the European Commission presented the 33rd annual report on the protection of the EU’s financial interests and the fight against fraud in 2021. the report stated that 11,218 cases of fraud and irregularities in total were reported. This is a bit less than in 2020. The related irregular amounts increased to €3.24 billion.

By decision 042/2022 of 28 September 2022, the EPPO College established an asset recovery and money laundering advisory board (ARMLAB). It is a central body within the EPPO, building up expertise as well as facilitating and streamlining EPPO’s strategic objectives in the fields of asset recovery and money laundering.

On 18 August 2022, the EPPO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Financial Intelligence Unit of Luxembourg (CRF, Cellule de renseignement financier). The MoU will provide a structured framework for cooperation between the Parties.

In September 2022, the European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi signed two Working Arrangements that will establish facilitated cooperation with the Prosecution Services of Montenegro and Georgia.

On 3 October 2022, the UK-US data access agreement (DAA) entered into force. It obliges each party to ensure their laws permit a telecommunications operator to lawfully respond to direct requests for covered data made by a relevant public authority in the other party’s jurisdiction. It is the first executive agreement concluded by the US government with a foreign country under the US Cloud Act. It can be used instead of government-to-government MLA requests.

On 25 July 2022, the Commission presented the first report on the evaluation and review of Directive 2016/680. According to the report, the LED has generally been transposed in a satisfactory manner, but a number of issues have been identified. It has significantly contributed to a more harmonised and higher level of protection of individuals’ rights and a more coherent legal framework for competent authorities.

On 7 September 2022, the European Digital Rights (EDRi) network published a position paper on the proposed Regulation on automated data exchange for police cooperation, known as “Prüm II”. The position paper raises several critical issues of the proposal, such as the insufficient alignment to the Law Enforcement Directive.

According to a report by the European Court of Auditors, the Commission’s assessment is generally appropriate, but there remain risks to the successful implementation of the national recovery and resilience plans, such as unclear milestones and targets.