Resumen de La protection des intérêts financiers de l'UE: un grand avenir derrière elle ...
The article aims at pointing out the fundamental contributions made by the area of the protection of the financial interests (PFI) of the European Community to the establishment and development of a criminal law system of the European Union; a contribution which still continues. From the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty up until now, various texts adopted in the field of the protection of the EC’s financial interests have played a “cutting-edge” role for most of the instruments which compose the “Common Space on Justice” nowadays. The article demonstrates this continuous role by referring to the most original and innovative content of these texts, starting at the very first proposals of the Commission in 1976 and presenting the relevant case law of the Court of Justice (on sanctions, the principle of assimilation and the criminal law competence of the Community).
Examples for this “cutting-edge” role are, for instance, the initial approaches of approximation in the field of criminal law, the system for introducing a liability of legal persons, the obligation to provide for value confiscation, the “principle of assimilation”, which is already incorporated in the EC Treaty, the legal basis for the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor and the new competences of the Community in the criminal-law field which are both provided for in the Lisbon Treaty. In its final part, the article presents some possible perspectives in view of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, including those which are provided for by the new Art. 325 TFEU. Accordingly, the new article not only offers relevant potential for further innovation, but, in view of the future scenario, it seems to be the only legal basis for a criminal approximation in the area of PFI binding all Member States. For the protection of the financial interests, an exciting future behind ...
