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Dear Readers, At the present time, the topics of fraud and tax evasion and, in general, the integrity of the single market are at the heart of the political agenda. Many of the issues under discussion concern my portfolio in one way or another. Firstly, I wish to mention the fight against fraud and tax evasion. This debate is not new. We can all recall the G20 meeting in London in 2009, where an ambitious political agenda was launched for the fight against tax havens and tax evasion in a broader sense. Recent reports have shown that the phenomenon is…

The article discusses the ECJ’s judgment in Spector Photo Group (C-45/08) on the interpretation of “use of inside information” under Directive 2003/6/EC. The Court held that possession of inside information combined with trading in the related financial instruments suffices to presume use, without proving intent, …

The article analyses how national and international developments have reshaped the roles of the Dutch judge of instruction and the public prosecutor in international judicial cooperation. Traditionally, the judge of instruction controlled preliminary investigations and the use of coercive measures, also in cross-border cases. With …

As explicitly mentioned in the Treaty of Nice,1 and preceded by a provisional unit (“pro-Eurojust”),2 Eurojust was established through a Decision of 28 February 2002.3 The latter was amended by the Decision of 16 December 2008 on the strengthening of Eurojust.4 Shortly after the celebration of its 10th birthday in 2012, Eurojust became the subject of a new reform. On the 17th of July 2013, the Commission presented a proposal for a Regulation on the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust), based on Art. 85 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU).5 This initiative was…

Dear Readers, EU money must not be pocketed by criminals. We have a federal budget – with money coming from the 28 EU Member States – and, as a consequence, we also need federal laws to protect this budget. This is why the European Commission proposed a Directive on the protection of the EU’s financial interests in July 2012. The new EU-wide rules aim to achieve two objectives: First, to introduce common definitions of fraud throughout the EU, making sure that fraud against the EU budget is considered a crime everywhere in the EU. Second, to set a minimum level…