Full effectivness of European Union's Policies

• Author: Lamya-Diana Al-Kawadri
• Position: Young Researcher, Centre for Legal, Economic and Socio-Administrative Studies, 'Nicolae Titulescu' University, Bucharest, Romania
• Pages: 138-147

LESIJ NO. XX, VOL. 2/2013

FULL EFFECTIVNESS OF EUROPEAN UNION’S POLICIES

Lamya-Diana AL-KAWADRI

Abstract

One of the conditions for the adoption of legal instruments in the field of criminal law is to ensure the

effectiveness of their indispensability Union policies. European Court of J ustice has tried to ensure the full

effectiveness of criminal law by proposing the adoption of some criminal tools. The study aims to obser ve

some criteria to deter mine the full effectiveness, where it exisst and to present some defendpolicies by which

the Member-States should be guided.

Keywords: EU policies, principle of effectiveness, lack, fight against criminality at all

levels inside each member-state.

Introduction

According to Article 83 of TFEU, The European Par liament and the Council may, by

means of directives adopted in accordance with the ordinar y legislative pro cedure, esta blish

minimum rules concerning the definition of cr iminal offences and sanctions in the a reas of

particula rly serious crime with a cross-border dimension resulting from the na ture or impact of

such offences or from a specia l need to combat them on a common basi s. EN C 83/80 Official

Journa l of the European Union 30.3.2010.

Same article establishes the areas of crime where minimum rules regarding a definition is

needed: terrorism, trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation of women an d children,

illicit d rug trafficking, illicit arms trafficking, money laundering, corruption, counterfeiting of

means of payment, computer crime and organised crime.

Furthermore, same article says th at if the approximation of criminal la ws and r egulations

of the Member States pr oves essential to ensure the effective implementation of a Union policy

in an area which has been subject to harmonisation measures, directives may establish

minimum rules with regard to the definition of criminal offencesand sanctions in the area

concerned.

Regarding these provisions that TFEU underlines, the Commission has made some

proposals for a Council Framework Decision in some criminal areas.

Because any legislative proposal f rom the Commission to the Council and European

Parliament is accompanied by an impact study, we will try to highlight how these proposals for a

framework decision/directive would reflect the necessity of adopting the legislative act.

European Commission defines impact assessment as a set of logical steps which helps the

Commission to do this. It is a process that prepa res evidence for political decision -makers on the

advantages a nd disadvantages of possible policy options by assessing their potential impact.

The Commission also mentions that the most effective way of improving the quality of new

policy pr oposals is by making those people who ar e resp onsible for policy development also

responsible for assess ing the impact of what they propose.

 Young Researcher, Centre for Legal, Economic and Socio-Administrative Studies, “Nicolae Titulescu”

University, Bucharest, Romania. This paper is part of a broader research activity which is carried out under

the CNCSIS PN II Contract no.27/2010 (e-mail: av.ldk.ro@gmail.com).