Annexes to COM(2012)717 - Evaluation report on the EU Crime Prevention Network - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2012)717 - Evaluation report on the EU Crime Prevention Network. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2012)717  |
| date | November 30, 2012 |
The costs of an incremental development of the EUCPN are estimated at approximately €1,2M for a two years period, starting when the current Action Grant expires (mid 2014). Member States may decide to finance EUCPN themselves, or alternatively, decide to apply for co-funding under the ISEC Financial Programme (through an Action Grant).
Independently of any possible future application for financial support through the ISEC programme, the future development of the EUCPN should be matched with a stronger commitment of all EU Member States to actively support the work of the EUCPN.
The Commission considers that a working group of the EUCPN Board Members supported by the Secretariat should be established to consider and address the recommendations made in this report under section IV and in the external evaluation.
The Commission recommends that the work of the EUCPN over the next three years (2013-2015) is evaluated again in 2016. At that time, the usefulness of establishing a Crime Prevention Observatory could be reconsidered. The Commission looks forward to debating the development of the EUCPN further on the basis of this report, notably with the other EU institutions and the Member States.
[1] Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty reads as follows : The Union’s aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples. The Union shall offer its citizens an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers, in which the free movement of persons is ensured in conjunction with appropriate measures with respect to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime’. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:306:FULL:EN:PDF
[2] Examples include the costs of violence (Corso, Mercy, Simon, Finkelstein & Miller, 2007) or sexual violence (Miller, Taylor & Sheppard, 2007), the cost of alcohol-related crime (Miller, Levy, Cohen & Cox, 2006; Miller, Levy, Spicer & Taylor, 2006), the cost of fear of crime (Dolan & Peasgood, 2007), the cost of crime in specific states (Aos et al., 2001), and the cost of mental health care (Cohen & Miller, 1998).
[3] UNITED NATIONS CRIME AND JUSTICE INFORMATION NETWORK, Centre for International Crime Prevention, Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention http://www.uncjin.org/index.html)
[4] According to article 6 of the Council Decision, Contact points shall support national representatives in exchanging national crime prevention information and expertise within the Network.
[5] There are currently 5 observers representing Croatia, EU agencies (Europol, EMCDDA) and the European Commission and Council Secretariat. Observers may participate in the business of the EUCPN Board but do not have a vote.
[6] Financial support programme of the European Commission for the Prevention of and Fight against Crime. http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/security-and-safeguarding-liberties/prevention-of-and-fight-against-crime/index_en.htm
[7] This evaluation was undertaken by the Centre for Strategy & Evaluation Services (CSES). The study is available on the website of DG HOME : http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/organized-crime-and-human-trafficking/crime-prevention/index_en.htm
[8] Evaluation of EUCPN conducted in 2008 – 2009 by CSES http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/organized-crime-and-human-trafficking/crime-prevention/docs/evaluation_of_eucpn_final_report_(cses_11_03_09).pdf
[9] Article 2 of the of the Treaty on European Union and of the Treaty establishing the European Community reads as follows : "To maintain and develop the Union as an area of freedom, security and justice, in which the free movement of persons is assured in conjunction with appropriate measures with respect to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime". Article 29, second subpara refers to "… preventing and combating crime, organised or otherwise, in particular terrorism, trafficking in persons and offences against children, illicit drug trafficking and illicit arms trafficking, corruption and fraud,…" http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/ce321/ce32120061229en00010331.pdf
[10] Dedicated crime prevention provisions have been inserted in Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims (art 18) as well as in Directive 2011/93/EU on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography (art 23 ). The EU Strategy towards the eradication of trafficking in human beings (2012 – 2016) – COM(2012)286final - has the prevention of trafficking in human beings as one of its key priorities (priority B).
[11] Crimes committed by mobile “itinerant” criminal groups are a good example of this blurring between organised and volume crime. These crimes include: shoplifting, metal theft, cargo theft, house burglaries and pickpocketing.
[12] In most EU countries, crime levels have been decreasing consistently over the period since around 2002-03 although the tendency was upwards in some Member States (Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania and Sweden). The countries where the decrease in total crime has been most noticeable were Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Poland and the UK. Even recent figures indicate for the UK (crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales) a further drop of 4.2% between the years ending March 2011 and March 2012. Total numbers of crimes recorded for nine of the ten main categories of offence fell compared to the previous year, with criminal damage showing a fall of almost 10% (source : UK Police force tables). But underlying these general tendencies there are considerable differences in the development of specific types of crime. Since 2006 – 2007 the police recorded more crimes in a number of Member States, particularly, for domestic burglary and drug trafficking. On the other hand the type of recorded crime which showed the most substantial decrease was theft of motor vehicles, followed by violent crime and robbery. (Source : EUROSTAT - Statistics in Focus crime and criminal justice) http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-SF-12-006/EN/KS-SF-12-006-EN.PDF
[13] See media reports on Greece (http://www.balkanalysis.com/greece/2011/05/15/organized-crime-in-greece-statistics-trends-and-police-countermeasures-in-2011-2/).
[14] See also OCTA (2011) p6 : "The recent global economic crisis and the connected financial restraints have made communities more tolerant to illicit commodities, especially counterfeit goods".
[15] Nine out of ten Europeans consider organised crime as an important threat to EU security, see EUROBAROMETER 371 of 2011 on p 28.
[16] According the survey of key stakeholders undertaken for this evaluation, almost two-thirds (65.2%) of the respondents indicated that collaboration at the EU level between Member States to promote crime prevention is either ‘very’ or ‘quite’ important. This confirms the findings of a Special Eurobarometer 380 ‘Awareness of Home Affairs’ report, June 2012, pages 51-60, which stated that nine in ten Europeans (91%) agreed that the EU institutions and individual Member State governments should work more closely together to fight terrorism and crime.
[17] The overall low response rate to the survey as well as the high degree of “don’t know” are only two examples of the fact that EUCPN and its activities are still not widely known.
[18] The so-called 'Administrative approach' to combat organised crime can best be described as a combination of tools at administrative level to prevent organised crime from infiltrating the public sector, the economy or key parts of the public administration. Council Conclusions on the fight against crimes committed by mobile (itinerant) criminal groups were adopted in November 2010 and contained provisions for the establishment of an informal network of contact points on the administrative approach. http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/jha/118169.pdf The network was established in 2011 but has no secretarial support.
[19] The EUCPN Council Decision (art 2.2) allows EUCPN to look into “all measures that are intended to reduce or otherwise contribute to reducing crime and citizens feeling of insecurity…”. Equally, the multi-annual strategy of EUCPN states that EUCPN should contribute “to the promotion of a multi-disciplinary and preventive approach to crime”. For reasons of efficiency and sustainability, there should be greater synergies between the EUCPN and the network, possibly also from an organisational point of view.
[20] This could include building up a better understanding of trends at the EU level and across Member States with regard to crime, establishing an overview of Member States’ crime prevention institutional set ups, strategies and policies (some of this information is already available) and to the extent that it can be assessed, an assessment of what impact crime prevention measures have on different types of criminal activity.
[21] The EUCPN and EUROSTAT participate both in the expert group assisting the Commission with the implementation of the Crime Statistics Action Plan 2011- 2015 COM(2011) 713 final.
[22] See footnote 4 for their role according to the Council Decision
[23] The Action Grant of €845.000 covering a three years period, requires 5 % co-financing by EU Member States.