Europese Commissie werkt aan harde aanpak van internationale criminele netwerken (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission on Thursday 27 January issued proposals aimed at curbing cross-border criminal gangs.

The proposals include a common definition of what is a "criminal organisation" and an exchange of information on criminal records between member states.

"If criminal gangs think that the EU has a soft touch on crime then they make a mistake", said Franco Frattini, Commission's Vice-President responsible for justice, presenting the proposals to journalists.

"At this stage, we don't have instruments to know who is convicted, so we have to provide authorities with such an immediate link, and guarantee that criminals are brought to justice regardless in which member state they committed crime or fled afterwards".

Organised crime under the spotlight

Mr Frattini said that organised crime features on the top of the EU list of serious crimes and will therefore be the first affected by the forthcoming harmonisation.

The new legislation defines a criminal organisation as a group of people, responsible for serious crime with at least four years of imprisonment.

Those would include trafficking of weapons, human beings or drugs, economic crime or money laundering.

According to Europol, the EU housed 4000 criminal organisations in 2002, employing 40,000 criminals. The IMF figures indicate that money laundering from profits arising from organised crime make up 2% to 5% of GDP in Europe.

The other plan is to establish exchange of information on criminal records between the competent authorities in the member states, so that "criminals can no longer benefit from legal loopholes and differences in national practices," argues the Commission.

"I expect good support from member states, because the legislation will give them fresh instruments to overcome problems and difficulties. However, it is up to them to eventually translate these proposals in their own legislation," said Franco Frattini.