European combating crime organizations. EUROJUST

1. European combating crime organizations. EUROJUST Prepared by law faculty students: AnastasiaGopta, JuliaPrygun, KseniaTarasova. Supervisor: TatianaDrozdova.

2. Historyof universal criminal justice The idea of universal criminal justice has its roots far back in human history. But only in the 20th century did such ideas were made a reality as a legal issues.

3. The evolution of international criminal law is a result of some of the darkest chapters of human history, like wars and the genocideof the people.

4. Аn idea to consolidate European countries appeared after World War II. Foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952 became the first step on the way to European Union.

5. European Coal and Steel Community was created by 6 countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

6. In 1957, these six countries signed the Treaty of Rome and created the European Economic Community (EEC) which was founded to bring about economic integration.

7. The European Unionwas formally established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force on 1 November 1993.

8. Nowadays the European Union is composed of 27 member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

9. The EU's work is divided into three areas of responsibility, called pillars.

10. In 1999 European Council at the Treaty of Tampere created a special subdivision (agency) EUROJUST Eurojust is a body, which is dealing with judicial co-operation in order to improve the fight against the most serious crime.

11. COMPOSITION OF EUROJUST

13. The first priorities for this co-operation could be juvenile, urban and drug-related crime.

14. Combating crimes: • Crimes in IT sphere (information technologies). • Fraud and bribery and other offences directed against economic interests of European Community.

15. Money laundering. • Ecological offences. • Participations in organized criminal groups on the territory of EC Member.

16. WORKING METHODS OF THE BODY

17. States The European Council considers that, with regard to national criminal law, efforts to agree on common definitions, incriminations and sanctions should be focused in the first instance on a limited number of sectors of particular relevance, such as financial crime (money laundering, corruption, Euro counterfeiting), drugs trafficking, trafficking in human beings, particularly exploitation of women, sexual exploitation of children, high tech crime and environmental crime. Serious economic crime increasingly has tax and duty aspects.

18. The European Council therefore calls upon Member States to provide full mutual legal assistance in the investigation and prosecution of serious economic crime.

19. Money laundering is at the very heart of organized crime. It should be rooted out wherever it occurs. The European Council is determined to ensure that concrete steps are taken to trace, freeze, seize and confiscate the proceeds of crime.

20. With due regard to data protection, the transparency of financial transactions and ownership of corporate entities should be improved and the exchange of information between the existing financial intelligence units (FIU) regarding suspicious transactions expedited.

21. The European Council underlines that all competences and instruments at the disposal of the Union, and in particular, in external relations must be used in an integrated and consistent way to build the area of freedom, security and justice. Justice and Home Affairs concerns must be integrated in the definition and implementation of other Union policies and activities.

22. Full use must be made of the new possibilities offered by the Treaty of Amsterdam for external action and in particular of Common Strategies as well as Community agreements and agreements based on Article 38 TEU.

23. The European Council is deeply committed to reinforcing the fight against serious organized and transnational crime.

24. The high level of safety in the area of freedom, security and justice presupposes an efficient and comprehensive approach in the fight against all forms of crime.

25. A balanced development of union wide measures against crime should be achieved while protecting the freedom and legal rights of individuals and economic operators.

26. The exchange of best practices should be developed, the network of competent national authorities for crime prevention and co-operation between national crime prevention organizations should be strengthened and the possibility of a Community funded program should be explored for these purposes.

27. The European Council calls for the establishment of a European Police Chiefs operational Task Force to exchange, in co-operation with Europol , experience, best practices and information on current trends in cross-border crime and contribute to the planning of operative actions.

28. The European Council calls on the Council to provide Europol with the necessary support and resources. In the near future its role should be strengthened by means of receiving operational data from Member States and authorizing it to ask Member States to initiate, conduct or coordinate investigations or to create joint investigative teams in certain areas of crime, while respecting systems of judicial control in Member States.