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

“…to improve… the effectiveness and cooperation of the competent authorities in the
Member States in preventing and combating terrorism, unlawful drug trafficking and
other serious forms of international crime where there are factual indications that an
organized criminal structure is involved and two or more Member States are affected by
the forms of crime in question…” 333
Furthermore, the Outline of the Europol Drug Unit Working Programme for 1998 also
states,
“Special emphasis will be given to the implementation of the EU Action Plan Against
Organised Crime as agreed by the Amsterdam Summit.” 334
In later years, Europol’s work began to place a great emphasis on understanding the
reality of organised crime in the EU and border countries. 335 Accordingly, in 1999 it
reported that
“…although some traditional criminal activities, such as drug trafficking remain highly
lucrative, there are indicators that many criminal groups are moving to more profitable
but less risky criminal activities, such as large scale frauds, environmental crimes,
smuggling of tobacco products and alcohol and illegal immigration.”
Furthermore, the same report continued by noting that
“…criminal groups are increasingly involved in illegal immigration and trafficking in
human beings for the purposes of sexual exploitation; high tech crimes, involving the
use of computers” and organised crime groups have a “greater involvement in
committing frauds against the financial interests of the EU.” 336
The political and legal visibility given to organised crime in the European Union, took
place, once again, as in the 1980s, despite a lack of consensus about the reality of
numbers in relation to this type of criminality. Hence, these initiatives were at the heart
of several criticisms made of the discourse of ‘increase in criminality’ before 1993,
333 Europol Convention, supra note 232.
334 Europol Drugs Unit, ‘Outline of the Europol Drugs Unit Working Programme 1998’, Doc.
11796/97, Brussels, 31 October 1997, 1.
335 Europol, “EU Organised Crime Situation Report – 1998 – Open Version”, The Hague, 8
December 1998, File 2530-50.
336 Ibid., 5.
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