Legislative Train Schedule
European Parliament
Please fill in this field to search

Legislative initiative on transfer of criminal proceedings

In “A New Push for European Democracy”

PDF version

In 1972, the Council of Europe adopted a European Convention on the Transfer of Proceedings in Criminal Matters. However, less than a half of EU Member States have ratified the convention, whilst the issue remains unregulated at EU level. In 2009, 16 EU Member States supported a proposal for a Framework Decision in this field. The negotiations proved to be difficult and the decision has not been adopted. Evaluating deficiencies in the legal framework on cooperation in criminal matters, the 2019 Romanian presidency of the Council concluded there was a need to explore space for a legislative proposal on the transfer of proceedings.

The EU Strategy to tackle organised crime 2021-2025 mentions the transfer of criminal proceedings as an issue the Commission is considering for further action. The legislative initiative was announced in the Commission's Work Programme 2022. The public consultation on the initiative ended on 4 March 2022. The adoption of the legislative proposal was scheduled for the third quarter of 2022.

In January 2023, Eurojust published a report on the transfer of proceedings in the EU, which underlines that the current fragmented legal framework leads to difficulties and legal obstacles in the procedures. It concludes that 'a new EU instrument laying down common criteria and procedures for transferring proceedings to another Member State would serve to improve the current situation in terms of legal certainty, effectiveness and efficiency'.

On 5 April 2023, the Commission presented a proposal for a Regulation on the transfer of proceedings in criminal matters. The proposed act aims at establishing common rules regulating the conditions under which criminal proceedings initiated in one Member State may be transferred to another Member State. It intends therefore to facilitate judicial cooperation and to prevent conflicts of jurisdiction by establishing a uniform procedure in place in the EU. The proposal is limited to requests issued in the framework of criminal proceedings, but they can be issued for any criminal offence that may be prosecuted in the requesting Member State. This instrument would provide an alternative to the European Arrest Warrant when such a warrant would not be possible or disproportionate. Moreover, the common rules aim to prevent unnecessary parallel criminal proceedings concerning the same facts and the same person being conducted in two or more Member States, as well to reduce the number of multiple proceedings. There is no obligation to request a transfer of proceedings.

The proposal for a regulation includes: specific grounds for jurisdiction; criteria under which a transfer of criminal proceedings can be requested; certain rights for suspects and accused persons. as well as for victims, a procedure for requesting a transfer, time limits for taking the decision on the request as well as an exhaustive list of grounds for refusing a transfer. 

Between 10 April and 15 June 2023, the public was invited to give feedback on the Commission's proposal.

On 22 May 2023, the European Data Protection Supervisor adopted its opinion, which welcomes the aim of the proposal, but invites the co-legislators to to clarify the roles and responsibilities of central authorities pursuant to the proposal, as well as the references to the data protection legal framework.

Ireland announced its intention to take part in the adoption of the proposal.

The subsidiarity deadline for national parliaments expired on 20 June. The Czech and the Italian Chambers of Deputies as well as the German Bundesrat pointed to a series of problematic provisions in the proposal.

The European Economic and Social Committee's opinion of 20 September 2023 welcomed the Commission's proposal, but suggested several modifications to the text, such as: a better reference to fundamental rights instruments, a translation process where artificial intelligence is not used or the right of parties to appeal to a higher court on grounds of inadequate translation of procedural documents.

In Parliament, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) is in charge of the file. Assita Kanko (ECR, Belgium) was appointed rapporteur. On 10 October, the rapporteur issued the LIBE draft report, which proposes, among others: to extend the definition of victim to legal persons as well; to include deadlines for more efficient and quicker transfer of criminal proceedings; to oblige the requesting and requested authorities to consult before a request for transfer is issued, but also after the transfer is approved, with regard to the provisional measures taken. On 8 November, the amendments to the draft report were published. LIBE adopted the report on 23 January 2024 and adopted the decision to enter interinstitutional negotiations, which was confirmed by plenary on 7 February 2024. Interinstitutional agreement was reached on 6 March 2024. The Parliament is due to vote on it during the April II session.

On 4 December 2023, the Council adopted its general approach. 

References:

Author: Martina Prpic, Members' Research Service, legislative-train@europarl.europa.eu

As of 20/03/2024.