Search results

Dear Readers, While internal and external security remain key priorities for the European Union, they require constant adaptation to the evolving crime situation and geopolitical context. As the April 2025 EU Security Strategy (ProtectEU) puts it, the current threat landscape is stark: the line between hybrid threats and open warfare is becoming increasingly blurred, and hostile states are waging hybrid campaigns against the EU across online and offline domains to disrupt our societal cohesion and democratic processes. As Europol outlines, powerful organised crime networks are proliferating in Europe, most with extra-EU connections, penetrating our economy and affecting our society. Cryptocurrencies…

This article outlines the new Directive on the violation of Union restrictive measures (EU sanctions), adopted on 24 April 2024. This legislation, initiated by the European Commission in the aftermath of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, above all aims to harmonise across the Member …

This article describes the heightened risk of corruption and other criminal phenomena that accompany the financial stimulus and economic recovery measures taken by governments in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. International organisations (United Nations, OECD) and European organisations (Council of Europe, European Union) have …

10 years ago, on 1 December 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force and brought judicial cooperation in criminal matters from the sphere of intergovernmental cooperation fully into the fold of EU law and policies. Almost all former framework decisions in the field of …

Dear Readers, Developing criminal law and judicial cooperation in criminal matters has been a key component of Union policies for the last 20 years. The Union’s common area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) provides citizens and companies with both security and rights, in particular by ensuring an ever-increasing coordination between judicial authorities, the progressive mutual recognition of judgments and judicial decisions in criminal matters, and the necessary approximation of criminal laws. Soon, Union institutions must take stock of what has been achieved and what remains to be done. Our future priorities must follow the wake of our achievements but...

The establishment of a European prosecution office with the competence to fight crimes against the financial interests of the EU has been the subject of discussion for many years . Twenty years after the Corpus Juris experts recommended setting up a European Public Prosecutor's Office …