Criminal Justice

Money laundering and terrorist financing are global phenomena. Increased cooperation at EU and global level is the best way to tackle them.

Today, the European Commission adopted a proposal to upgrade the 'ECRIS' tool to improve further the rules on the exchange of criminal records of non-EU citizens in the EU.

Today, new EU rules to fight money laundering and terrorist financing start to apply across Europe. They substantially strengthen the existing rules.

In 2011, the Commission issued a Communication on European judicial training setting a target of at least 5% of European legal practitioners attending training in EU law every year.

Today the European Commission proposed a Regulation on mutual recognition of criminal asset freezing and confiscation orders.

Today, the new rules on legal aid proposed by the Commission in 2013 cleared the final hurdle.

The [link]http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014L0062(Directive)[/link] on the protection of the euro and other currencies through criminal law measures introduces tougher sanctions for criminals and improved tools for cross-border investigation. These EU rules must be implemented and applied by all Member States as of today.

[h2]How to answer training needs of justice practitioners?[/h2]

Today, Monday 22 February marks the European Day for Victims of Crime. Every year, 75 million people fall victim to crime across the European Union. New rules that apply across the EU since November 2016 guarantee that people who fall victim to crime in the EU benefit from [link]http://ec.europa.eu/justice/criminal/victims/rights/index_en.htm(a minimum set of rights)[/link].

Ministers from the EU Member States have adopted new rules that will guarantee the presumption of innocence of anyone accused or suspected of a crime by the police or justice authorities. The Directive also ensures that everyone benefits from the right to be present at their trial.

The European Commission is today presenting an Action Plan to strengthen the fight against the financing of terrorism.