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At their meeting of 7 December 2018, the EU Member States’ Ministers for Justice adopted Council conclusions on mutual recognition in criminal matters. The conclusions contain several calls on the Member States and the Commission.

The European Parliament and the Council adopted a regulation on the mutual recognition of freezing orders and confiscation orders. The new legal framework (Regulation (EU) 2018/1805) was published in the Official Journal of the EU of 28 November 2018 (O.J. L 303/1). The Regulation replaces the provisions of Framework Decision 2003/577/JHA as regards the freezing of property and Framework Decision 2006/783/JHA as of 19 December 2020.

At the Council meeting of 6-7 December 2018, the JHA ministers of the EU Member States reiterated their support for EU-wide legislation on data retention. They encouraged the continuation of work at the expert level to develop a new concept after the 2006 "date retention Directive" was declared void by the CJEU in 2014.

The European Union has a new legal framework for the protection of personal data processed by Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies. The underlying Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 repeals Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC which date back to the pre-Lisbon era and did not cover the processing of personal data within all Union institutions and bodies.

At its meeting of 6 December 2018, the JHA Council adopted its general approach to the proposed regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online. This proposal had been submitted by the European Commission on 12 September 2018, following a call by EU leaders in June. For the proposal, see eucrim 2/2018, pp. 97-98 and the article by G. Robinson.

On 12 December 2018, MEPs adopted a resolution that contains over 225 recommendations for tackling the threat of terrorism.

At its meeting of 4 December 2018, the ECOFIN Council adopted conclusions on an Anti-Money Laundering Action Plan. The ministers welcomed the progress made in preventing and combating money laundering in recent years, but call for further improvements, in particular as regards the (cross-border) exchange of information and collaboration between prudential and anti-money laundering supervisory authorities.

On 15 November 2018, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) adopted Opinion No 9/2018 on the Commission’s proposal for a Regulation establishing the EU Anti-Fraud Programme for the 2021-2027 financing period (for the proposal, see eucrim 2/2018, pp. 92-93).

On 7 December 2018, the Commission published the 2nd Action Plan to fight the illicit tobacco trade (Communication to the European Parliament and the Council, COM(2018) 846 final). The action plan covers the period 2018-2020. The Commission stresses that the illicit tobacco trade can only be curbed by a combination of policy and enforcement measures.

In November 2018, OLAF hosted the annual meeting of the Anti-Fraud Communicators' Network (OAFCN). Communication experts working for anti-fraud public organisations discussed crisis communication, the importance of storytelling, and real-life communication scenarios.