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A new Directive establishes a modern legal basis for the exchange of information between the EU Member States' law enforcement authorities. It will repeal the 2006 "Swedish Initiative". The Directive is founded on five principles and the future exchange of law enforcement information should be effectuated via a system of Single Points of Contact.

On 31 March 2023, the network of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Agencies (JHAAN) published an update of the joint paper on its contribution to the EU’s solidarity with Ukraine (for the initial paper →eucrim news of 14 October 2022). The update …

This news item gives an overview of the recent developments regarding the finalisation of interinstitutional negotiations on the EU rules to gather e-evidence in criminal matters. Negotiations on a legal framework between the EU and the USA on this matter were resumed in March 2023.

On 5 April 2023, the Commission presented a proposal for a Regulation on the transfer of proceedings in criminal matters between Member States. The aim of the proposal is to generate more efficient criminal proceedings as well as better administration of justice within the EU.

In its judgment of 2 March 2023, the ECJ clarified that a German tax office responsible for criminal matters and tax investigation (Steuerfahndung) cannot issue European Investigation Orders (EIOs) without a judge, a court, an investigating judge or a public prosecutor having validated the EIO in advance.

According to the opinion of the AG, Volkswagen cannot be punished twice for "Dieselgate" in Italy after having paid a fine in Germany in the same context, because there has not been sufficient coordination between the penalty proceedings in both States.

According to the ECJ, a Member State can exempt certain offences affecting its national security from the scope of the transnational ne bis in idem. This can also concern the offence of forming a criminal organisation in which the person prosecuted participated has engaged exclusively in financial crime, in so far as the action of that organisation intended to punish harm to the security or other equally essential interests of that state.

In a report, released on 13 March 2023, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found loopholes in transparency and detecting situation at risk if it comes to conflicts of interests. ECA’s report focuses on how conflicts of interests as an irregularity affecting the EU budget have been addressed in agricultural and cohesion policy – the EU’s biggest spending areas.

On 1 March 2023, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) published a special report “The EU’s financial landscape – A patchwork construction requiring further simplification and accountability”. ECA auditors call for further simplification of the complex EU financial landscape and recommend making efforts for consolidation. They point out that the EU’s current financial landscape has been described by the European Parliament as a “galaxy of funds and instruments surrounding the EU budget”.

On 8 March 2023, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) published a report in which it warns of gaps in the protection of the EU's financial interests and criticises the Commission's control system for the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The ECA took a closer look at the design of the Commission’s control system for the RRF and how it fulfils criteria of assurance and accountability.