A European Action Plan for fighting organised crime, corruption and money laundering

Organised crime, corruption and money laundering are now global phenomena needing a response on the same scale. The EU will have to face these challenges with the appropriate tools, based on the most advanced laws in the Member States.

A special parliamentary committee was therefore set up in March 2012 with the objective of studying and analysing criminal activities, to then come up with a comprehensive and structured plan to combat them at EU level.

The Special Committee on Organised Crime had a limited term of one year and a half, and, as was in its mandate, produced a mid-term report, voted last June, and now a final report, on the thematic areas detailed further on.

Gathering international expertise to analyse organised crime and develop legislative measures

During its mandate, 15 hearings and 24 meetings were held with European Commissioners Cecilia Malmström, Algirdas Šemeta, Viviane Reding and Michel Barnier, along with other representatives from the EU institutions and agencies, international experts from international organisations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the Council of Europe, national authorities and judicial police, and academics and members of civil society.

Furthermore, several Committee delegations visited Belgrade, Milan, Palermo, Rome, The Hague and Washington, to hear nearly 150 authorities and experts involved in different ways in measures to combat criminal activities, including transnational crime. The main aim was to audit legislative instruments used effectively to fight organised crime nationally.

The Special Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering (CRIM Committee) has now finalised its work and adopted its final recommendations in Committee on Tuesday 17 September.

A European Action Plan for 2014-2019

Salvatore Iacolino, an Italian MEP from the EPP Group and Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, is Standing Rapporteur on the Special Committee on Organised Crime. He was therefore responsible for drafting the recommendations in a report that aims to serve as a guide for the development of legislation in the field of organised crime, both at EU and Member-State level.

In his final report, Iacolino called for the implementation of a European Action Plan for 2014-2019 to eradicate organised crime, corruption and money laundering. The roadmap includes some positive priorities, such as:

• defining criminal acts, including involvement in mafia-style organisations and self-laundering (where the offender of the predicate offence hides the illicit origins of the proceeds that he got by the predicate offence);
• abolishing bank secrecy;
• eliminating tax havens;
• promoting the seizure and confiscation of criminal assets;
• criminalising sports-rigging;
• introducing appropriate penalties for cybercrime;
• eradicating trafficking in human beings and forced labour, especially when they concern minors and women;
• introducing a Europe-wide corporate taxation that is as uniform, equal and homogeneous as possible;
• strengthening the fight against environmental crimes and drug trafficking;
• ensuring swift mutual recognition of judicial measures;
• establishing and launching a European Public Prosecutor’s Office;
• recognising the relevant role of investigative journalism in identifying serious crimes.

How to fight organised crime

Among the measures to be taken in the fight against organised crime, the mid-term and final reports highlighted:

• making participation in Mafia-type organisations a crime in all EU Member States;
• harmonising national legislation;
• promoting the seizure and confiscation of criminal assets and their re-use for social purposes in compliance with the subsidiarity principle;
• provisions for economic players convicted by final judgement of organised crime, corruption or money laundering to be excluded from public procurement procedures anywhere in the European Union;
• the establishment and launch of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office, equipped with the necessary human and financial resources
• support for European agencies, such as Europol and Eurojust, as well as the Joint Investigation Teams (set up to carry out criminal investigations in one or more Member States in the areas of trafficking in drugs and human beings as well as terrorism) and the Asset Recovery Offices (Member-State authorities responsible for recovering the proceeds of crime).

What next? Implementing an EU-wide legal framework

According to Salvatore Iacolino, all the work carried out by the Special Committee on Organised Crime is only a start, and has provided an opportunity to raise the issue at European level.

Now a coherent legal framework at European level is needed, as well as, for example:

• strengthening transparency mechanisms in public administration;
• promoting self-regulation of companies in the field of corruption;
• adopting specific rules on vote-buying;
• strengthening cooperation with the banking system and the European agencies and international organisations.