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

Ultimately, the entire range of national judicial decisions in criminal matters can thus be
affected by the general application of mutual recognition and – even if Member States
can introduce exceptions 537 – these decisions (and hence a broader realm of criminality)
are still under the influence of ECL. This is so as they are still within the scope of
mutual recognition instruments and hence national authorities can still make use of these
ECL tools for cooperation by sending requests, for example, for the recognition of
sentences or cooperation in investigation in relation to other types of offences beyond
the 32 types listed. This indicates that ECL’s influence potentially stretches to the entire
range of decisions that the framework decisions make reference to (i.e. financial
penalties, supervision measures, decisions in absentia and the decisions referred to by
the Framework Decision on the EAW). These are no longer decisions regarding Eurocrime
or even any of the offences included in the list of 32 or 39 serious crime types in
relation to which double criminality cannot be exerted. In fact, these potentially cover
the whole range of judicial decisions in criminal matters that national courts can
deliver. 538
Hence, the application of the principle of mutual recognition through these framework
decisions created, beyond Euro-crime, a second dynamic of ECL. This dynamic can be
nuanced in two further spheres of focus of ECL and of its influence upon national
systems – one still related to serious criminality whilst another related to any type of
offence included by those EU measures aimed at facilitating mutual recognition. It did
so by expanding the previous boundaries of ECL that had been primarily confined
mostly to Euro-crime as seen in previous chapters and earlier in this chapter. Preambles
of these measures rarely make reference to any particular type of criminality or concrete
goal beyond the general objective of completion of an area of freedom, security and
justice and the occasional general statement of respect for fundamental rights. 539
537 See chapter 5.
538 As it will be seen in chapter 5 of the thesis this broad application of the principle raised
complex questions of compatibility and trust between Member States.
539 The decay of strong language against organised crime in preambles is also noted in policing as
the new EU Council Decision on Europol incorporates what Dorn argues to be a ‘vocabulary
shift’ from ‘organised crime’ to ‘serious crime’. Indeed, Europol’s first mandate was mostly
fixed on the idea of organised crime as developed in this dissertation, covering most examples
(but not all) of what we here call ‘Euro-crimes’. However, the new Decision broadens Europol’s
scope to an even more ambiguous and flexible concept of serious criminality. See N. Dorn, “The
end of organised crime in the European Union” (2009) 51 Crime, Law and Social Change 283.
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