‘Ensure no safe haven’ for EU criminals
The Oireachtas European Scrutiny Committee has urged the Government to take a more active role in the development of criminal law harmonisation to ensure there is no safe haven for criminals within the EU.
A new report by the committee has recommended Ireland should not use its “opt-out” option on some aspects of EU security and justice initiatives.
It argues that Ireland, on balance, has more to gain from being centrally involved in the harmonisation of criminal law between the 27 EU member states than being on the margins.
The report’s author, Fine Gael’s Lucinda Creighton said the elimination of internal borders within the EU, while facilitating the freedom of movement of citizens, had also made it easier for criminals and terrorists to operate on a transnational basis.
Ms Creighton highlighted how some Irish criminals had move to places like Spain and Portugal while some foreign criminals had taken up residency in Ireland as a means of escaping law enforcement agencies in their home countries.
“Faced with this level of threat from cross-border crime, the administration of justice must not be impeded by differences between member states’ judicial systems,” she said.
Ms Creighton pointed out that successful harmonisation had already occurred through the development of initiatives like the European Arrest Warrant, which is valid across all EU member states, and which replaced extradition procedures between individual EU countries.
Proposals to recognise penalty points and other driver licence endorsements between Ireland and Britain are a further example of how standardised law enforcement can prevent offenders from escaping the law by virtue of being in another country, said Ms Creighton.
The Dublin South East TD said: “Ireland has nothing to fear from being at the forefront of advocating closer alignment of legal and law enforcement policy.”
The report recommends that agencies like the Criminal Assets Bureau, An Garda Síochána and the Customs Office should engage regularly with their EU counterparts.
It also advocates the introduction of crime prevention strategies in schools which have been successfully trialled in other EU states.
