Editorial NJECL November 2022
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20322844221141120 |
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
Editorial
New Journal of European Criminal Law
2022, Vol. 13(4) 385–386
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/20322844221141120
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Editorial NJECL November
2022
For future legislation: further EU minimum standards for criminal proceedings strengthen Europe,
the EPPO and the Rule of Law
With the Treaty of Lisbon of 2007/09, the EU made the Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR)
part of its primary law. Human rights under the ECHR apply, as it were, as minimum standards
within the EU anyway (cf. Art. 6 para. 3 TEU and Art. 52 para. 3, 53 CFR). As such, both European
institutions, such as the European Public Prosecutor’sOffice (cf. Art. 5, 41 of Regulation [EU]
2017/1939) which has been operational since June 2021, and the Member States, when im-
plementing EU law, are bound by the Charter.Equally, since the Lisbon Treaty the legal principle of
mutual recognition of judicial decisions has been definitively enshrined in Articles 67 and 82 TFEU.
It is now a truism that the legal principle of mutual recognition can only function on the basis of mutual
trust between the Member States and their citizens and that minimum standards in criminal proceedings
are particularly critical forthat (there is growing awareness on this since Tampere 1999). The commitment
in the 2000s was successful, and laid the groundwork for the political and technical groundwork for
initiatives by the European Commission (Consultation Paper 2002 and Green Paper COM 2003/75), for
a bolder jurisprudence of the ECtHR, especially since Salduz (Judgment of 27.11.2008 - No. 36391/02),
and for a (new) political idea. In 2009 under the Swedish Presidency a Roadmap was adopted for certain
core topics of criminal procedure (Official Journal of the EU of 04.12.2009 C 295/1) which was to be
developed step by step in the coming years. All six Directives in the area of procedural rights, which
became applicable law in 2010-2016 despite considerable resistance of individual Member States, have
been implemented in the meantime and have strengthened the Rule of Law throughout the Union.
Shortcomings in the national implementation process are monitored by the Commission and must be
flagged and reprimanded with the help of criminal justice practitioners (e. g. in Germany deficits in
translations or legal aid for defence at the police stations). Despite the shortcomings, the measures adopted
in implementation of the Roadmap 2009 have undoubtedly strengthened mutual trust.In many respectsof
significant impact, though, there is still mistrust in the criminal justice system of other member states for
good reasons (e.g. in the field of pre-trial detention and prison conditions).
In 2017/18 the European Criminal Bar Association (ECBA) with the support of the Council of
Bars and Law Societies (CCBE) developed and published the “Agenda 2020”initiative for a new
roadmap to establish further minimum standards.
1
The initiative aims at a reliably secured
1. ECBA Initiative 2017/2018 “Agenda 2020: A new Roadmap on minimum standards of certain procedural safeguards”,
<http://www.ecba.org/extdocserv/20180424_ECBA_Agenda2020_NewRoadMap.pdf> (accessed 16 September 2022)
and Asselineau, V., NJECL 2018 9(2), 184-190.
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