Council adopts EU law about transfer of proceedings

The Council has given the final green light to an EU law that regulates the conditions under which proceedings in a criminal case initiated in one member state may be transferred to another member state.

The law will be critical in ensuring that the best-placed country investigates or prosecutes a criminal offence. It also prevents unnecessary parallel proceedings (of the same suspect) in different EU member states and therefore will help to fight cross-border crime more effectively.

The fight against cross-border crime needs EU member states to work together. Making sure that the best-placed member state will be in charge of a criminal investigation is of crucial importance in this respect.

Bence Tuzson, Hungarian Minister of Justice

The rules which were adopted today will also improve the respect of fundamental rights of the suspect or accused in the process of transferring criminal proceedings from one country to another.

Common rules for the transfer of proceedings

Under the new law, the authorities of a country will decide to request the transfer of proceedings (to another member state) on the basis of a list of criteria. These include that the criminal offence has been committed on the territory of the member state to which the proceedings are to be transferred or one or more suspects or accused persons being present in that member state.

Next steps

The regulation will enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. The regulation is directly applicable and will apply two years after it comes into force.

Background

Fuelled by the increase of cross-border crime, criminal justice in the EU is increasingly being confronted with situations where several member states have jurisdiction to prosecute the same case. The law which was adopted today is the first specific EU instrument regulating the transfer of proceedings.