The evolution of European Union criminal law (1957-2012)

thirty years and epitomises and important shift in the focus of criminal justice systems.
For much of the twenthieth century the victim remained in the background of the
criminal process whilst the offender was the key determinant of action. 426 This has now
changed and ECL, it will be seen, is representative of such a shift. Procedural rights of
the victim, their role as an active part of the prosecution, the taking into account of the
impact that such participation might have in their lives and development are elements
accounted for in ECL. 427
2.1. Narratives in European Union criminal law: developing old themes, creating new
ones
What drove this expanding scope What concerns and rationales led to this enlarged
focus Surely, many developments came to upgrade or replace previous measures
adopted. Hence, the fight against organised crime continued to be the paramount
concern during this period. The broad nature of the term continued to allow for the EU’s
intervention in a very wide range of criminality even if only indirectly related to
“organised crime”. Moreover, the protection of EC policies and interests via criminal
law continued to be pursued and enlarged as additional concerns over budgetary or
financial issues arose, as well as with transport or environmental policies. Finally, the
protection of fundamental rights, namely through protection of the victim and the need
for certain procedural rights began to emerge.
2.1.1. The fight against organised crime
The fight against organised crime continued to be the central narrative of ECL. The
knowledge of this type of criminality was by now well developed via national and
European police information sharing and was disseminated to the public and law
enforcement authorities via Europol’s annual reports on organised crime. The reliability
of this data is however still disputable. In fact, once significant institutional structures
and law enforcement means are set in place to tackle, identify and report on a certain
type of criminality, the amount of information available may suggest an increase and
therefore present a bleak picture of that form criminality. Moreover, some authors have
voiced fierce criticisms of the methods and type of data used by Europol to put together
its ‘Organised Crime Situation Reports’ arguing that the information provided in these
reports is altogether unreliable. They suggest that the data collection system is defective
and entirely dependent on what Member States decide to report to Europol (and in turn
426 D. Garland The Culture of Control, supra note 42, 11-12.
427 It will be seen in chapter 6 how this has also been one of the domains of development in the
post-Lisbon framework.
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